Assault Gun Ban Sent to Governor

SACRAMENTO â€”  Legislation to make California the first state in the nation to ban the sale of assault weapons was sent to Gov. George Deukmejian’s desk today after the Republican governor and the Democratic leader of the Senate announced that they had reached agreement on the plan.

Under the agreement, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti’s weapons bill was sent to Deukmejian in the form in which it passed the Assembly last month, and the relatively minor amendments that broke the Deukmejian-Roberti deadlock will be inserted in a separate bill.

A 29-8 Senate vote gave final legislative approval to the weapons bill and sent it to Deukmejian’s desk.

The principal compromise in the follow-up gun bill will reduce penalties in some limited circumstances for possession of restricted weapons.

Roberti’s bill would restrict the possession or sale of more than 50 specific models of assault weapons, including the AK-47 used by Patrick Purdy, who killed five children and wounded 29 other children and a teacher in a Stockton schoolyard in January.