Assault Weapons Ban Called Unenforceable : Firearms: The attorney general urges caution in seizure, arrest or prosecution. Legislation designed to remedy flaws has been introduced.

SACRAMENTO —  Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has warned local law enforcement representatives that the centerpiece of the historic California law that bans assault weapons is so technically flawed that “enforcement is not practical” without corrective action by the Legislature.

In a bulletin dated June 18 and made public Monday, Lungren warned all police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys to exercise caution in “any seizure, arrest or prosecution” for possession of a firearm “which may be viewed as an assault weapon, pending legislative action.”

Senate Leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who co-authored the ban law, has introduced remedial legislation sought by Lungren. A Roberti staff assistant said the attorney general has yet to forward a list to correct the inaccuracies.

Lungren acknowledged in the bulletin what many opponents of the 2-year-old law long have charged: Some of the nearly 60 firearms listed by trade name and model do not exist or are so misidentified that “without some new legislation to correct or clarify them, enforcement is not practical.”

Lungren cited the law’s prohibition of the “Avtomat Kalashnikovs (AK) Series” as a designation that is “too vague” to identify any specific semiautomatic gun. He also said a rifle called the “Calico M-900” is misidentified as a pistol. The law lists it both as a carbine and a handgun.

During passage of the legislation that banned most private ownership of military-style assault guns, opponents charged that the bill was so sloppily drafted that it failed to include the Chinese-made AK-47 model that Patrick Purdy fired when he murdered five children in a Stockton schoolyard Jan. 17, 1989.

Proponents, including officials representing then-Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, countered that broadly listing Avtomat Kalashnikovs as a “series” included the military-style gun used by Purdy. Lungren’s bulletin has the effect of reversing Van de Kamp’s position.

Don B. Kates Jr., a San Francisco lawyer advising the Second Amendment Foundation, a gunowner’s organization, called attention to Lungren’s bulletin Monday. He said that legislators, in compiling the list of prohibited guns, appeared to have selected from “some picture book . . . of mislabeled firearms they thought looked evil.”

While Lungren urged local law enforcement agencies to use caution in acting against illegal possession of assault weapons, he stopped short of advising them to stop enforcement of the key provision of the complex law.

Asked what action a police officer should take in dealing with an apparently illegal but misidentified gun, Lungren’s press secretary, Dave Puglia, said local authorities “are going to have to use their discretion.”

Lungren said he soon will issue the corrected list of outlawed assault weapons that are “sufficiently identified” so enforcement can occur without confusion.