California: Several Anti-Gun Bills Scheduled for Hearings for Tuesday, June 14

Fairfax, VA -(AmmoLand.com)- Friday, June 3, was the deadline date for all bills to pass out of their house of origin. Those bills that did not pass are defeated for the 2016 legislative session.

Unfortunately, as reported, a number of anti-gun bills have passed both the Senate and Assembly prior to the deadline. A number of these bills are continuing to move and have been scheduled for hearings in the Public Safety Committees on June 14th at 9 am. This is not a joint hearing but occurring simultaneously. It’s important to contact the members of this committee, including the bill sponsor, to express your opposition.

The below bills are scheduled to be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee on June 14, at 9:00 a.m., in room 2040 of the State Capitol. Please contact the members of the Public Safety Committee HERE or use our TAKE ACTION button below and urge them to OPPOSE AB 1664, AB 1673, AB 1674, AB 1695, and AB 2607.

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Assembly Bill 1664 would reclassify hundreds of thousands of legally owned semi-automatic rifles as “assault weapons.” These are constitutionally protected firearms that have no association with crime. The changes would happen quickly at the expense of gun owners and without public notice. Governor Brown vetoed similar legislation in 2013 and the California State Sheriffs’ Association has opposed this legislation.

Assembly Bill 1673 would expand the definition of “firearm” to include unfinished frames and/or receivers that can be readily convertible. Depending on how this vague terminology is interpreted, AB 1673 could essentially treat pieces of metal as firearms, subjecting them to California’s exhaustive regulations and restrictions currently applicable to firearms.

Assembly Bill 1674 would expand the existing one handgun a month law to include to long guns. AB 1674 will have no impact on criminal access to firearms and instead significantly hamper law abiding individuals, causing increased costs, time and paperwork to purchase multiple firearms. Criminals will continue to ignore this law purchasing firearms illegally, ignoring this burdensome and ineffective restriction.

Assembly Bill 1695 would create a 10 year firearm prohibition for someone convicted of falsely reporting a lost or stolen firearm. The NRA does not oppose making it a misdemeanor to knowingly file a false lost or stolen report to law enforcement. Our reason for opposition is related to the restriction of a constitutional right for the conviction of a misdemeanor offense.

Assembly Bill 2607 would expand the class of individuals who could seek a Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO).” The NRA opposes the current GVRO procedures because they provide a mechanism for an individual to lose the right to keep and bear arms with no due process of law. AB 2607 would compound these problems by significantly expanding the classes of individuals who could seek a GVRO.

The following bills are scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 14, at 9:00 a.m., in room 126 of the State Capitol. Please contact the members of the Public Safety Committee HERE or use our TAKE ACTION button below and urge them to OPPOSE SB 880, SB 894, SB 1235, SB 1407, and SB 1446.

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Senate Bill 880, similar to AB 1664, would make changes of monumental scale to California’s firearm laws by reclassifying hundreds of thousands of legally owned semi-automatic rifles as “assault weapons.”  These are constitutionally protected firearms that have no association with crime.  These changes would happen quickly with great individual costs to many gun owners and no public notice.  Governor Brown vetoed similar legislation in 2013.

Senate Bill 894 would require a victim of a crime to report to local Law Enforcement the theft of a firearm within an arbitrary time requirement of five days and the recovery of the firearm within 48 hours.  Governor Brown has twice vetoed similar legislation stating, “I was not convinced that criminalizing the failure to report a lost or stolen firearm would improve identification of gun traffickers or help law enforcement disarm people prohibited from possessing guns. I continue to believe that responsible people report the loss or theft of a firearm and irresponsible people do not.”

Senate Bill 1235 would require the Attorney General to maintain information about ammunition transactions and ammunition vendor licenses and would authorize specified agencies, officials, and officers to disseminate the name of a person and the fact of any ammunition purchases by that person, as specified, if the subject of the record has been arraigned, is being prosecuted, or is serving a sentence for domestic violence or is the subject of specified protective orders.  First and foremost, the reporting of ammunition sales has already been tried — and failed — at the federal level.  SB 1235 would impose drastic and unjustified restrictions on law-abiding gun owners while doing nothing to reduce violent crime.

Senate Bill 1407 would make it a crime under California law for an individual to manufacture a firearm without first obtaining California Department of Justice (DOJ) approval to do so and subsequently engraving a DOJ-provided serial number on the firearm.  This legislation should be opposed because it will effectively nullify the long-standing and constitutionally protected activity of building one’s own firearms.   Governor Brown vetoed similar legislation in 2014.

Senate Bill 1446 would ban the simple possession of ammunition feeding devices/magazines that are capable of holding more than 10 cartridges.  The federal “large-ammunition feeding device” ban of 1994-2004 was allowed to sunset due in part to its ineffectiveness.  Yet, California anti-gun legislators still are persisting with this ban knowing that the congressionally-mandated study concluded that “the banned guns were never used in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders” before the ban and the bans 10-round limit on new magazines was not a factor in multiple-victim or multiple-wound crimes.

About the NRA-ILA:

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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