Gun-control backers launch billboard campaign
LEGISLATION: An Orange County group aims to educate the public about lawmakers’ records.

January 26, 2000

By JOAN HANSEN
The Orange County Register

A billboard campaign unveiled Tuesday sends this message to Orange County legislators: The people support increased gun control. Why don’t you?

“We don’t understand the disconnection,” said Charles Bleck, father of gunshot victim Matthew Blek. “We aim to educate the public on the record of the representatives on responsible gun laws.”

The bright yellow signs, paid for with a $24,000 grant from The California Wellness Foundation, will appear in 19 locations throughout Orange County over two months.

The billboards assert that eight of 10 Orange County residents support an assault-weapon ban but nine of 10 Orange County legislators do not.

The assault-gun ban is one of four bills passed by the state Senate and Assembly in July and signed into law by the governor.

An Orange County Register poll in September showed that 55 percent of the 363 people randomly surveyed thought current gun laws were not restrictive enough.

Other findings:

Seven in 10 said they would support a measure to limit the number of guns a person can buy to one a month.
Almost that many said they would support a ban on the sale of cheap handguns.
Eight of 10 Orange County legislators voted against or abstained from voting on a bill restricting the purchase of more than one gun a month and a bill restricting junk guns.
Charles and Mary Leigh Blek’s son graduated from Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo and was gunned down in New York in 1994 during a mugging by a 15-year-old.

To honor his memory, the Bleks work for gun-law change from the Laguna Hills-based Orange County Citizens for Prevention of Gun Violence.