O.C. Mother to Speak for Handgun Controls

Orange County resident Mary Leigh Blek, whose son was murdered with a handgun in New York three years ago, will speak in Washington today at a news conference to support legislation targeting handguns.

The American Handgun Standards Act, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), would impose quality and safety standards for low-cost handguns--sometimes called “junk guns”--made in the United States.

Supporters and opponents both agree that, if passed, the legislation would dramatically reduce the number of Saturday night specials manufactured in the United States.

“We don’t want another family to experience this pain,” Blek said of her son Matthew’s slaying. “Maybe if [people] see my middle-class face, they’ll say ‘Yeah, that could have been my son.’ ” Matthew Blek was spending the summer in New York City when he was killed during a robbery.

Boxer spokesman David Sandretti said that following Sen. Robert Kennedy’s assassination with a foreign-made junk gun, Congress passed the Gun Control Act in 1968 to prohibit the importation of such guns, which sell for as little as $40 on the street.

Meantime, Sandretti said, a domestic junk gun industry took root, which did not have to follow any quality control standards.

“Toy guns have safety and quality standards,” Boxer said. “American-made handguns have none.”

Boxer said she was optimistic about the bill’s chances, but conceded, “It’s a very tough Congress to get it through.”

Carolyn Herbertson, a spokeswoman for the Gun Owners of California, said her organization opposes the bill because it would discriminate against the poor by decreasing the availability of low-cost handguns.

“Only the rich can protect themselves” under the bill, Herbertson said.

Blek, who co-founded Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence with her husband, Charles, plans to speak today for about three minutes. She will share the stage with Boxer and gun-control advocate Sarah Brady, wife of President Reagan’s former press secretary, James Brady, who was paralyzed in a 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan.