From: [gerry 9753] at [aol.com] (Gerry9753)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: [California Alert] CCW - Call Your State Senator!
Date: 1 Feb 1996 19:38:35 -0500

Folks,

Cross-post as necessary!

Please call your STATE Senator (your "representative/employee" in
Sacramento, listed in the Front of your phone book) and ask for their
support of "The Senate version of AB638":


California Body Passes Concealed Weapons Bill

    SACRAMENTO, Calif (Reuter) - The California Assembly has passed a bill
that would make it easier for Californians to carry concealed handguns
legally.

    The bill by Republican Assemblyman William Knight passed the
Republican-controlled Assembly late Wednesday on a 42-33 vote and now goes
to the Democratic-dominated state Senate, where its future is uncertain.

    Knight's office said in a statement that the bill would allow ``honest
law-abiding citizens the ability to carry a concealed firearm for
protection.''

    Under Knight's bill, applicants for a concealed weapon permit would
have to pay a $12.50 fee and show they are competent in handling guns. The
bill would require sheriffs and police chiefs to issue permits after a
15-day waiting period unless they believed the applicant was likely to use
the weapon unlawfully or negligently.

    Under the bill as amended in the Assembly, applicants would also be
turned down if they were known gang members, had a criminal record of
abusing their spouses, had been found mentally unstable by a court or had
been dishonorably discharged from the military.

    At present, law enforcement officials in California have discretion in
whether to issue concealed weapons permits. About 38,000 Californians now
have the permits and that number is expected to swell greatly if the bill
becomes law.

    Democratic attempts to kill the bill failed in the Assembly. The bill
is opposed by several California law enforcement groups but supported by
pro-gun groups.

 ^REUTER@ 



Transmitted:  96-02-01 14:15:51 PST
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"It is suggested that the commons can be restored to quiet and peace by
removing, whenever they are known, evil officers and counsellors and
putting better and more virtous and more sufficient ones in their place,
as well as removing all the evil circumstances from which the late
disturbance and the other mischief befell the realm, as said above. 
Otherwise, all men think that this realm cannot survive for long without
greater mischief than has ever befallen it before, which God forbid."
The English Parliament, 1386, five years after the Peasants Revolt.
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