SACRAMENTO >> Responding to last year’s deadly terrorist attack on San Bernardino and other mass shootings, the state Senate Thursday morning approved the first few in a series of gun control bills the upper house is set to consider today.
The sweeping package of proposals would regulate the sale of ammunition, make several changes to the assault weapon’s ban lawmakers passed almost two decades ago and establish a Firearm Violence Research Center at the University of California.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, hopes to use the Senate’s action today to create momentum in the Capitol that helps carry the bills through the Assembly and to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk as soon as next week. Swift success, he hopes, will convince Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom to yank an initiative from the November ballot that tackles many of the same problems the legislation addresses.
But none of it will be easy. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, D-Paramount, has not yet endorsed de Leon’s strategy, the governor’s position on the legislation remains uncertain and Newsom has vowed not to pull his measure from the ballot no matter what the Legislature does.
Legislation authored by de Leon in 2009 regulated the sale of ammunition, but a judge later ruled that its definition of ammunition was too vague to enforce.
De Leon’s Senate Bill 1235 and Assembly Bill 156, authored by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, seek to remedy the problem by defining ammunition as “one or more loaded cartridges consisting of a primer case, propellant and with one or more projectiles.”
The Senate approved both measures on a 24-15 vote.
Senate Bill 880, authored by Senators Isadore Hall, D-South Bay, and Steve Glazer, D-Walnut Creek, and Assembly Bill 1135, authored by Assemblymen Marc Levine, D-Marin County, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, seek to make another modification to California’s assault weapons ban to effectively prohibit “bullet buttons.”
Aiming to work around current law, which bans long-guns with detachable magazines, firearms manufacturers began selling “California compliant” assault weapons with recessed buttons that allow users to instantly detach a magazine by pressing it with the tip of a bullet or another small tool.
The Senate approved these measures on a 24-14 vote. Lawmakers will consider several other parts of the package later this morning.
California’s assault weapon’s ban has been on the books for close to two decades now, and it banned the importation, manufacture and sale of large capacity ammunition magazines. It did not, however, place any restrictions on possession of high-capacity magazines.
Senate Bill 1446, authored by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, would prohibit possession of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Los Angeles have already passed local ordinances that make possession of large-capacity magazines a misdemeanor crime.
Senate Bill 1407, authored by de Leon, aims to eliminate the proliferation in recent years of so-called “ghost guns,” which are manufactured at home from parts that don’t have serial numbers and can’t be traced by law enforcement officials when they’re used to commit crimes.
The measure would require anyone who manufactures a gun at home to apply to the state Department of Justice for a unique serial number and engrave or permanently affix the number to that firearm within 10 days.
