Sign of the times in California. Democrats maneuvered to kill Assemblyman Guy Houston’s bill to hold public transportation funds from the city of Berkeley for bashing Marines, while Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier’s bill to further regulate handguns successfully moved out of committee to the Assembly floor in Sacramento.
Legislation authored by Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-San Ramon) to punish Berkeley for its anti-U.S. Marine Corps actions, failed to pass the Assembly Transportation Committee in Monday’s hearing. Despite taking a Democrat amendment which would have prohibited the city of Berkeley from granting a public right of way to a political organization but would have spared Berkeley transportation funding, the Assembly Transportation Committee failed to provide the needed votes for passage.
Democrats Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) and Cathleen Galgiani (D-Livingston) along with all of the Republicans on the committee voted for the measure. With the vote on the verge of passage, Democrat leadership slammed the door on further Democrat votes needed to put the bill out of committee to the full Assembly.
“I have a lot of respect for my Democrat colleagues Solorio and Galgiani,” said Houston. “They put good public policy ahead of politics and showed great leadership in this issue.”
AB 2235, which passed out of Assembly Public Safety on a party-line vote, would require all newly manufactured or imported handguns in California to be owner-authorized, or personalized in a way that would allow them to be fired only by authorized persons. This requirement will take effect eighteen months following the release of a report by the California Attorney General that owner-authorized handguns are available for retail sale. AB 2235, to be heard May 23, 2008, would require that this personalization technology be a permanent programmable biometric feature that is part of the gun’s original design and manufacture and cannot be readily deactivated.
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GUY HOUSTON LOOKS 20 YEARS YOUNGER!! RUNNING FOR SUPERVISOR IS GOOD FOR YOU MAN!!
Now, I can’t stand Code Pink, I have always been opposed to our invasion of Iraq, but I have to ask -why is our State legislature wasting time and ultimately our tax dollars screwing around with this? It’s between the City of Berkeley and the Marine Corp. Punishing an entire city, which happens to have some of the most progressive transportation systems in place for opposing a boneheaded war is childish. Deal with some real California issues please.