From West Hollywood Ordinance No. 95-453, Sec. 1:

"D. The City Council finds that, as a result of inferior craftsmanship, Saturday Night Specials are not sufficiently accurate or reliable...as as...means of personal protection...they are not well suited for this purpose."

Let me begin with a confession: I'm a lousy shot. I don't practice enough to become good and probably never will, what with the demands of family and work. So I was a bit apprehensive about taking on the City of West Hollywood when they made the above assertion. But I knew that they were full of it, and also figured I had a way to prove it to people.

I have a Raven .25, what those who want to ban affordable firearms would call a "Saturday Night Special". It's small, not powerful, and if there was a less expensive gun on the market at the time I bought it, I don't know about it.

My gun is 20 years old. I hadn't fired it in years. I still use the original magazine. Combine this with my admitted lack of pistol skills, and I'd say I have given the City Council as fair a shake as I can devise. I did take it apart first, just to make sure that everything was clean and functional.

I conducted my test at LAX Firing Range in Inglewood, California. I had arranged to have Fred Kong, an NRA-certified instructor in four disciplines, witness my test, along with Sal Grammatico, a fellow activist and avid hunter. I did not do any warm-ups or take any practice shots. I like to make these guys laugh.

I fired 3 clips (18 shots) from standard military practice range (7 yards).

So how did I do? By marksmanship standards, terrible. I did not disappoint myself in terms of my assessment of personal limitations.

How did I do by West Hollywood's standards? Judge for yourself. Place your hand over your heart, like you're going to say the Pledge of Allegiance (go ahead and say it if you want, I'll wait). Now imagine the following pattern of fire, remove your hand and ask yourself if this would be an effective, "sufficiently accurate" pattern for defensive purposes. And remember that this was done from 21 feet; most defensive encounters happen at a considerably closer distance.

And what about reliability? The gun fired all rounds without jamming or other mishap. I tested the safety each time before firing off a clip and it worked flawlessly. Sorry, Council members, it did not "backfire" (whatever that means) or blow up in my face or do any of the other horrible things you say these guns do in order to whip up public hysteria.

But then again, so what? No one seriously thinks that the West Hollywood City Council (or their counterparts at other levels of government) are interested in the truth about guns, do they?

Anybody not find that unsettling?

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