Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Some citizens fear for safety if courts uphold S.F.'s voter-approved ban on handguns
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/5/05 | Cecilia M. Vega

Posted on 12/06/2005 9:58:30 AM PST by kiriath_jearim

The line of fire

Some citizens fear for safety if courts uphold S.F.'s voter-approved ban on handguns

Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, December 5, 2005

For a long time, Margaret Hurst lived in fear.

Gangs control turf just a few blocks from her Mission District apartment in San Francisco, and she's sure a neighbor across the street deals drugs. Her building was broken into four times in one year. She saw teenagers on her street display a gun. And while she was stopped at a red light one day, a man tried to punch in her car window in a case of road rage.

So she bought a handgun. Now Hurst is no longer scared.

"I'll tell you one thing. If I'm going down, I'm taking them with me," said 49-year-old Hurst, who is about as un-Charlton Heston as any woman with a British accent, braided bun and long flowing skirt could be.

After a heated campaign brought the national debate over gun control to San Francisco, the city's famously liberal voters passed a law last month banning the sale, manufacture and distribution of firearms and ammunition within city limits. The measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, also makes it illegal for residents to possess handguns.

And as that date approaches, handgun owners like Hurst are becoming increasingly fearful of the consequences.

"We're exactly the kind of people that should have weapons. We're vulnerable," Hurst said during a recent conversation in her cozy apartment, where she lives with her partner and their two cats. "The guns are not going away unless they absolutely have to."

When 58 percent of the city's voters approved the handgun ban, San Francisco joined only two other cities in the nation with similar laws, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: banglist; bradywatch; secondamendment
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 12/06/2005 9:58:31 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim


Welcome to San Fransciso a place where we believe the Constitution doesn't include the 2nd Amendment, but does include rights to abortion and gay marriage.


2 posted on 12/06/2005 10:01:21 AM PST by Tzimisce
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

Happens everywhere there's a gun roundup. Keep your piece, Marge.


3 posted on 12/06/2005 10:01:22 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

Too bad. That's what she gets for living in a leftist paradise like SF. Now she can either defy the law or move out. Her choice.


4 posted on 12/06/2005 10:01:29 AM PST by Emile
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

5 posted on 12/06/2005 10:02:07 AM PST by fzx12345 (Three lefts don't make a right; they invent one.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim
From 2000 to 2004, there were 4,235 handguns sold legally in San Francisco County

I"ll bet there were that many sold in Raleigh in the last thirty days.

6 posted on 12/06/2005 10:05:12 AM PST by George Smiley (This tagline deliberately targeted journalists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

How anyone could willingly choose to live in that city is beyond me.


7 posted on 12/06/2005 10:05:24 AM PST by frankiep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

Gun toting lesbian ping? I just love it! Bet it's a larger group than most would believe.

Last year for Christmas, my husband got me an NRA membership and no, the guy wasn't in trouble for it! Women taking responsibility for their own protection is an idea that is long overdue.


8 posted on 12/06/2005 10:07:54 AM PST by trimom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

Think of the shop owners, many of whom have a bit of "hardware" in their top drawers. Once again, the (mostly white and "banana" Asian) far left affluent elites prove that they really don't care about the (typically immigrant) small business owners who live in places besides Noe Valley and Pacific Heights.


9 posted on 12/06/2005 10:08:02 AM PST by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Take Back The GOP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: frankiep

I'd move to Oakland.


10 posted on 12/06/2005 10:09:04 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: frankiep

With its ethnic neighborhoods and style of urban development, it is quite appealing to recent immigrants. The way the houses are is ideal for having multiple generations in one house. Plus there are many homes over shops. Like NYC in the day.


11 posted on 12/06/2005 10:09:45 AM PST by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Take Back The GOP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

When are they going to ban bicycle riding and swimming and automobile driving?

Are not more people killed annually in the US from those activities than from handgun deaths?


12 posted on 12/06/2005 10:10:34 AM PST by RexBeach ("The rest of the world is three drinks behind." -Humphrey Bogart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

"San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality." -Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane


13 posted on 12/06/2005 10:12:51 AM PST by RexBeach ("The rest of the world is three drinks behind." -Humphrey Bogart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RexBeach

And then there is the old addage, "my pistol has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car."


14 posted on 12/06/2005 10:16:18 AM PST by hophead ("Enjoy Every Sandwich")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: RexBeach

"When are they going to ban bicycle riding"

But they LOOOVE bicycle riders - apparently so much that they do nothing when these jackasses slalom between people walking on the sidewalk and nearly mow them down.

I work there, but I live elsewhere, so fortunately, I'm in a building most of the time (maybe spend 25 minutes outside everyday). Between the country-financed drug addicts and bums (which is what they are - I won't buy into this "homeless" jargon crap) a once lovely City is now a perpetual human sewer.


15 posted on 12/06/2005 10:17:32 AM PST by Right Cal Gal (Armed, Female and Southern!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim
In South San Francisco, there is a single lone shooting range and gun shop only a few hundred yards from the SF city limits. I have shot there occasionally and also drive by it every evening on the way home from work.

Since the SF handgun ban law passed last month, you'd think that the gun range is a supermarket judging by the amount of activity there lately. It's another example of the 'get yours before they're banned!' phenomenon that California has seen after previous restriction measures such as the 1989 California Roberti-Roos 'Assault Weapons' ban.

Presumably, the SF handgun ban will be overturned in the courts which means that SF will have even more handguns than before the wretchedly ignorant Lib-tard Chris Daly proposed his handgun ban.

16 posted on 12/06/2005 10:21:42 AM PST by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: trimom
Women taking responsibility for their own protection is an idea that is long overdue.

Amen, sister!

BTW, one out of every four homosexuals voted for Bush in 2004. That's a lot higher than I would have thought. The Dims must have their panties in a bunch over all these minorities wanting to leave the plantation.
17 posted on 12/06/2005 10:23:52 AM PST by JillValentine (A government that wants to ride in and save the day must be small enough not to crush the horse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Right Cal Gal

Yes, I noticed a lot of bike riding on sidewalks and quite surprised by that.

Yup. the city ain't what it used to be, but I still enjoy a nice walk through Golden Gate Park or down in the Marina district to old Fort Point. God, what a view!


18 posted on 12/06/2005 10:24:00 AM PST by RexBeach ("The rest of the world is three drinks behind." -Humphrey Bogart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: kiriath_jearim

It never ceases to astound me. Making guns criminal, so as to deny criminals use of them.


19 posted on 12/06/2005 10:26:20 AM PST by stan the beaver (We will kill the ones who eat us, and eat the ones we kill!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tzimisce
Welcome to San Fransciso a place where we believe the Constitution doesn't include the 2nd Amendment, but does include rights to abortion and gay marriage

And the Supreme Court says.............

???

20 posted on 12/06/2005 10:26:49 AM PST by Republic If You Can Keep It
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson