Local News in Brief : Lawmaker’s Gun Stance Protested

A small group of pickets marched Friday morning outside the Paramount office of Assemblyman Willard H. Murray (D-Paramount) to protest his opposition to restrictions on the sale or possession of semiautomatic assault rifles.

Picketers included Gregory Fisher and Ella Mae Jackson, the father and grandmother of Philip Fisher, a 2-year-old Compton boy who died last month when he was struck by bullets from an assault rifle in a drive-by shooting that also killed a 19-year-old youth. Chanting, “Save Our Children,” and, “End Violence,” a dozen pickets marched for nearly two hours and said they would return next week. Murray, a freshman assemblyman who was endorsed by the National Rifle Assn. during his campaign last fall, has said that he will not support a ban on assault rifles or a compromise proposal that would make buyers wait 15 days to take possession of the weapons after buying them. Such restrictions infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens who want to own guns, he said.