Unintended consequence | Law appears to put `assault’ label on pistol of champion high school target shooter

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David Hasemyer
STAFF WRITER
16-Jan-2000 Sunday

Lauren Santibanez | Sandy Santibanez
Lauren Santibanez is a target shooter with Olympic aspirations and a
collection of shiny gold medals attesting to her world-class skills.

The 17-year-old Mt. Carmel High School senior has a record of national and
international titles.

She also may have another record pretty soon — a criminal one.

That’s because the custom-made target pistol Santibanez has used to capture
Junior Olympic championships, U.S. National championships and International
Junior World championships falls into the category of assault weapon under
a new state law.

It’s an unintended consequence of the law aimed at outlawing certain guns
that have a sensational history of violence. But Santibanez’s finely
crafted competition pistol nonetheless became, at least technically, an
illegal weapon on Jan. 1, much like tens of thousands of other pistols and
rifles used in competitive shooting throughout the state.

The pistol, a German-manufactured Walther .22-caliber, falls into the
category of assault weapon because of its design.

The ammunition magazine is in front of the trigger. That’s a design trait
shared by the TEC-9 pistol that has earned a reputation as a weapon of
choice in mass killings such as at Colorado’s Columbine High School.

It was the TEC-9 type of pistols that many believe legislators were gunning
for when they decreed that any pistol with a magazine not built into the
pistol’s grip is an assault weapon, even though the placement of the
magazine doesn’t make the gun more powerful or more accurate.

Santibanez feels like she’s an inadvertent victim of the gun control
movement that has established California as one of the most gun-restrictive
states in the nation.

It will be a misdemeanor to own the gun without registering it as of Jan.
1, 2001. The second offense is a felony.

Lauren’s father and shooting coach, Sandy Santibanez, contends it’s absurd.

“We are faced with becoming felons because of this law,” he said. “My
daughter is an Olympic shooter, not a criminal.”

His daughter summed up what she thinks of the situation with teen-age
succinctness:

“It’s stupid,” she said.

It might seem like an easy obstacle to overcome, convincing authorities
that target pistols specially designed to meet Olympic shooting
requirements are not assault weapons.

Or she could have her father register the gun, though it would be
technically illegal for her to shoot it. Santibanez’s father is dead set
against that option because the new law would make it illegal for her to
handle the gun.

“If I did (register the gun) then I would be an adult giving her an assault
weapon,” he said. “Suddenly we are both breaking the law.”

The new law is rigid, granting a limited number of exemptions mostly for
law-enforcement officers’ service weapons but not for Olympic shooters. It
would take an act of the Legislature to free Santibanez of the registration
requirement.

“It’s a real threat to my goal of making the Olympics,” the Rancho
Penasquitos teen-ager said.

Santibanez said the law may prompt her to leave the state and not attend
California State University at Humboldt, where she had planned to study
next year. “This is going to force me to make to have to make some
decisions that will affect my life.”

Santibanez doesn’t get much sympathy from the author of the law, state Sen.
Don Perata, D-Oakland.

If Olympic shooting is her goal, Perata says, she should find a state more
friendly to the sport, much like Olympic skiers go to Utah and Colorado to
train.

“She may be better off living in Texas,” said Perata, who reluctantly
indicated that some limited exemptions to the law might be made if there
were compelling reasons.

With the law about to take effect, Lauren’s father had to hustle to change
the dates of a key match that could lead to a spot on the Olympic shooting
team for his daughter.

Santibanez was able to reschedule the match from February to December to
avoid any conflicts with the law. His daughter won it and is now the
California Junior Olympic sport pistol champion.

Her father still has to decide, by the end of 2000, whether to register the
target pistols as assault weapons or face at least the potential of
criminal charges. And he’s distressed because even if they’re registered
they still can’t be handled by anyone under 18.

Santibanez considers that an assault on all Junior Olympic shooters,
contending, “This takes the hopes away from some young people who had
dreams of making the Olympics.”