Posted on 11/07/2005 6:15:45 AM PST by boris
PROFILE | SAYRE WEAVER
By Sandy Banks, Times Staff Writer
It's hard to imagine Sayre Weaver as the California gun lobby's Public Enemy No. 1. Slight and soft-spoken, the Yale-educated attorney doesn't march or testify or legislate.
She litigates. Relentlessly. With a laser-sharp focus that has delivered a series of body blows to an industry long accustomed to beating back efforts at gun control.
For 10 years, Weaver has been working to staunch the flow of "Saturday night specials" — cheap handguns that cost less than a good pair of sneakers and are the weapon of choice in the criminal milieu.
In 1996, she helped West Hollywood officials draft and defend California's first local ordinance aimed at curtailing handgun sales. That success, despite a well-funded challenge by the gun industry, emboldened dozens more cities to tighten limits on weapons sales, making California a national leader in restricting handgun access.
"These are guns that have no legitimate sporting purpose," says Weaver, who lives in La Habra Heights and practices in Brea. "The gun lobby had bamboozled everybody" into believing that restrictions violated constitutional protections.
"But there are all sorts of ways to regulate firearms dealers, in the same sort of way you regulate liquor stores: You have to operate out of a business district, you have to have a local license, you have to provide security measures, you can't have minors in your store without an adult….
"It's not an issue of putting them out of business but raising their level of responsibility....
For her efforts, Weaver, legal director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, was among three activists honored in San Francisco last month by the California Wellness Foundation with its 2005 Peace Prize for violence prevention.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
--this would almost be funny , if it wasn't so pitiful--
Restriction DO violate Constitutional protections. For what ever good they have done. I'll have my weapon until I am no more.
The leftists REFUSE, in spite of all the evidence, to admit that the 2nd Amendment has NOTHING to do with "legitimate sporting purposes".
The reason for the 2nd Amendment is to provide the means for the citizenry to depose the current government should the need arise. Period.
She's partly responsible for me moving to Montana. Thanks, Sayre!
Don't bring a Molotov cocktail to a gun fight. I bet the French wish they had a well armed militia right about now.
How's that workin' for you, dear?
Oh, and LA is so much safer because of her efforts?
Keeping cheap handguns out of the hands of the poor helps whom?
Too bad the locals don't see it for what it is. Targeted dis-armnament of the poor with minorities disparately impacted.
CCW is a social duty and should be encouraged.
Nah. The French will NEVER admit to the need for a well-armed citizenry. They'd rather surrender.
And so that's how we measure success now, is it?
I don't suppose you'd care to spout some MEANINGFUL statistics, about say, handgun crimes going down, or anything like that.
Doing through the courts what the legislature refuses to do. That is, thwart the will of the people.
For 10 years, Weaver has been working to staunch the flow of "Saturday night specials" — cheap handguns that cost less than a good pair of sneakers and are the weapon of choice in the criminal milieu.
Following in the footsteps of white racists, to deny poor people the means of defending themselves. And anyway, I thought "assault weapons," no, wait, ".50 cal sniper rifles," no, "pocket rockets" - or was it the .500 S&W Magnum was/were the weapon of choice for criminals? Gee, these moving goal posts sure are hard to track.
That success, despite a well-funded challenge by the gun industry, emboldened dozens more cities to tighten limits on weapons sales, making California a national leader in restricting handgun access.
And we can see the result of this "success" by the low levels of firearms crime present in Kali.
"These are guns that have no legitimate sporting purpose," says Weaver
"After all, the First Amendment is only about Scrabble and other games, and the Second Amendment, enshrined in the Bill Of Rights, is really just about recreation and fun, and has nothing to do with reconizing rights of citizens in a free country, nor with restricting the power of government."
For her efforts, Weaver, legal director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, was among three activists honored in San Francisco last month by the California Wellness Foundation with its 2005 Peace Prize for violence prevention.
You would think that people who win peace prizes could show some objective reduction in violence. But no study has been able to link gun prohibitions with any kind of violent crime reduction. Instead, one would have to think that this prize is modeled after the Nobel peace prize, which awards criminals and terrorists like Annan and Arafat.
Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him?
And thank God these measures are in place. Else people might drink...Even get drunk...Drive their cars under the influence, get alcohol poisoning, beat their wives, stagger around singing FreeBird at three in the morning...Yep, it's a good thing that government regulation keeps all that stuff from happening.
That's not true... some aver that plugging a would be robber or rapist is great sport. If a SNS can do the trick, more power to it.
--the only usage of the term "pocket rocket" I know of was by the ignorant media--if you want the whole garbage article, latimes@spam.la and yodayoda come from bugmenot--
btt for later
Weaver wants only rich people to have guns.
A pocket rocket has 2 wheels and a screaming engine in a small frame.
From a google it appeats the "pocket rocket" is a term associated eith divers electrical devices - commutor bikes, USB flash drives, playstations, and *ehm" "personal massagers".
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