CHARLESTON, W.Va. - City Council members were surprised to find booklets at their desks Monday evening, asking them to overturn Charleston's handgun laws.

The light-blue booklets were placed there courtesy of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League whose president, Jim Mullins, said the group simply wants council to align its gun laws with the state's.

"I recoiled when I saw the book," said City Council President Tom Lane. "I drafted just about every one of those bills. It hasn't been that long ago we had a debate about this."

Fifteen years ago, to be precise. In 1993, following a series of shooting deaths in the city, Lane and then-Mayor Kent Hall led a fight to restrict the purchase and use of handguns. It's safe to say Lane, the only holdover from the 1993 council, is not eager to roll back those laws.

Nor is Mayor Danny Jones, who was a radio talk show host in those days.

"There was a big fight in 1993. I don't see any reason to revisit any of that," Jones said Tuesday.

City Council passed several gun ordinances that year. One says it's illegal to carry a gun, knife, razor or any type of dangerous weapon in City Hall or other city property. Another places limits on purchases of handguns.

"They're relatively innocuous laws," Jones said. "We certainly ought to be able to keep people from carrying guns in City Hall."

The most controversial law restricts people from buying more than one handgun a month and requires a 72-hour waiting period for a criminal background check of the buyer, Lane said.

"It had very little support and was going down the tubes," he said. "Two things happened: The Charleston Chamber of Commerce came out in support and delayed it, and The Charleston Gazette did a poll."

The light-blue booklets were placed there courtesy of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League whose president, Jim Mullins, said the group simply wants council to align its gun laws with the state's.

"I recoiled when I saw the book," said City Council President Tom Lane. "I drafted just about every one of those bills. It hasn't been that long ago we had a debate about this."

Fifteen years ago, to be precise. In 1993, following a series of shooting deaths in the city, Lane and then-Mayor Kent Hall led a fight to restrict the purchase and use of handguns. It's safe to say Lane, the only holdover from the 1993 council, is not eager to roll back those laws.

Nor is Mayor Danny Jones, who was a radio talk show host in those days.

"There was a big fight in 1993. I don't see any reason to revisit any of that," Jones said Tuesday.

City Council passed several gun ordinances that year. One says it's illegal to carry a gun, knife, razor or any type of dangerous weapon in City Hall or other city property. Another places limits on purchases of handguns.

"They're relatively innocuous laws," Jones said. "We certainly ought to be able to keep people from carrying guns in City Hall."

The most controversial law restricts people from buying more than one handgun a month and requires a 72-hour waiting period for a criminal background check of the buyer, Lane said.

"It had very little support and was going down the tubes," he said. "Two things happened: The Charleston Chamber of Commerce came out in support and delayed it, and The Charleston Gazette did a poll."

The telephone poll asked 467 randomly selected Charleston residents if they supported the bill and its provisions, according to newspaper archives.

"The vote in favor exceeded 90 percent in every question, as I recall," Lane said.

His memory was a little off, but 89 percent supported the three-day waiting period and 80 percent liked the limit on purchases, records show. Still, when it came to a vote, council members barely passed the measure, 14-12.

"The 10 percent who opposed it came to every meeting," Lane said. "One time I'll bet 100 people were on the steps of City Hall."

They also took to the airwaves, Jones said. "I was on the radio. They were calling in, attacking Kent [Hall], attacking Tom."

In their booklet, Mullins' group suggests the city might be losing tens of thousands of dollars because its restrictive laws are driving gun dealers away.

"There are no gun stores in Charleston anymore," Jones said. "They all moved out. That's part of our economic development, frankly, that I'm not concerned about."

Jones said he didn't know if there was any support for the effort among council members. "Does council want to spend time doing something like this? Is that what they're there for?

"If someone else wants to take it up, they can," Jones said.

Reach Jim Balow at ba...@wvgazette.com or 348-5102.