Target shooter caught in crossfire
Perata law disqualifies Olympic hopeful

January 27, 2000

By Steve Geissinger
SACRAMENTO BUREAU

SACRAMENTO — The state assault-weapons ban that won Oakland’s Sen. Don Perata wide-ranging praise for saving lives has misfired in the case of a 17-year-old girl, dashing her dreams of competitive target shooting in the Olympics.

The plight of the unintended victim in the national battle over gun control has drawn widespread attention.

But the Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he will let the state law stand rather than seek an exemption and essentially called the girl a pawn for the gun-rights lobby.

“The NRA (National Rifle Association) often exploits isolated issues in its campaign to stop all reasonable gun-control measures,” he said. “In fact, the NRA often manufactures these situations by lobbying for competitions which use these types of weapons in a blatant effort to prevent passage of weapon bans.”

The NRA dismissed Perata’s allegations.—> “We neither exploited nor manufactured this,” said NRA spokesman Steve Helsley. The association referred the girl’s father to Perata’s office during a brief telephone conversation in September, he said.

Perata amended his bill last year numerous times because he was “not real clear on what he was doing anyway,” Helsley said. The lawmaker purposely chose not to address the issue involving target weapons and other flaws that will emerge, Helsley said.

Perata’s bill, the nation’s toughest assault weapons ban, was signed into law last year by Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. It principally bans the manufacture, sale or possession of “copycat” military-style weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.

But the custom, $2,000 target pistol used by Lauren Santibanez, a 17-year-old San Diego woman with a record of national and international contest titles, falls into the category of banned assault weapons.

Its design trait of an ammunition magazine in front of the trigger, instead of behind it, puts the gun in the same classification as other assault weapons.

—>Her father has until the end of the year to decide whether to register the target pistol as an assault weapon or face the potential of criminal charges. Even if it’s registered, the pistol can’t be handled by anyone under 18.

To protect her hopes, Santibanez has told reporters that she is considering a move to another state even though she made plans to attend college in Northern California.

She calls the situation stupid.

But Perata is not sympathetic. In the case of an under-age competitive target shooter, “we don’t even know this is a problem yet,” Perata said. “We don’t know she can’t use another gun.”

Perata added that he questions whether the state should support “training an adolescent to use an assault weapon for any reason.”