CALIFORNIA BILLS HAVE ARRIVED!
California's deadline for submission of bills has now passed and we are beginning to evaluate them in order to establish priorities and positions. Here is our beginning work with brief summaries.
Content was Printed with Permission from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
2017 California Firearms Legislation Summary
2/22/2017
Every year, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence tracks and analyzes all firearm-related legislation introduced in the California Legislature. This analysis summarizes the firearm bills that have been introduced this year. This analysis is ongoing and will be revised to reflect subsequent developments.
For the complete text of each bill, visit: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. For a full description of existing laws to prevent gun violence in California, visit our summary of California gun laws. For information on the status of firearm-related bills in other states, visit our 2016 Gun Law Trendwatch reports.
Assembly GVP Bills
AB 7 (Gipson) (Open Carry): This is a placeholder bill that may be amended to restrict open carry of handguns in public in unincorporated areas, rather than incorporated jurisdictions only.
AB 89 (Levine) (Suicide Prevention Training): This bill would, effective January 2020, require first-time applicants for a professional psychology license to receive suicide prevention training. It would also require individuals renewing their license after that date to receive a one-time continuing education course in suicide prevention.
AB 424 (McCarty) (CCW in Schools): This bill would remove local school districts’ authority to provide written permission for a person to possess a firearm within a school zone.
AB 736 (Gipson) (Gun dealer enforcement): This bill would authorize DOJ to fine gun dealers for legal violations, as an alternative to all-or-nothing license revocation proceedings, and would also authorize local city and district attorneys to bring civil actions against dealers to impose those fines.
AB 785 (Reginald Jones-Sawyer) (Disarming Violent Hate Crime Offenders): This bill would prohibit individuals convicted of misdemeanor violent hate crimes from purchasing or possessing guns for 10 years. This bill would also make technical, non-substantive changes to this prohibiting misdemeanor section. FAX: (916) 319-2159
AB 1262 (Eduardo Garcia) (Violence Prevention Funding): This placeholder bill may be amended to reauthorize CalGRIP or create an alternate funding stream for community-based violence prevention efforts.
AB 1525 (Baker) (Firearm Safety Warnings): This bill would require that a warning about the safety risks of firearms and the need to comply with state gun laws be posted on gun dealers’ walls, affixed to the packaging of firearms, published in DOJ’s firearm law guide, and FSC test study materials. It would also raise the minimum passing grade on the FSC test from 75% to 85% and would require FSC test takers to acknowledge receipt of a firearm safety warning and a warning regarding their obligation to sell/transfer firearms through a dealer before they may receive an FSC.
Other Assembly Bills
- AB 693 (Irwin) (Law Enforcement Training Exceptions): This bill would extend two law enforcement exemptions to students enrolled in the basic POST training course solely for the purposes of participation in the course. It would allow them to receive a firearm without a background check and to possess and receive an LCM provided that they do so only for the purpose of participation in the law enforcement training course. (Requires 55% because partially amends Prop 63).
- AB 757 (Melendez) (CCW Good Cause Requirement): This bill would provide a statutory definition for California’s “good cause” requirement for CCW licenses in a manner that would make this requirement effectively meaningless. Applicants whose “stated cause” is self-defense or crime prevention could not be required to prove that they are uniquely threatened in any manner. California would still be a may-issue state, though.
- AB 1040 (Mathis) (Assault weapon, Machine Gun Permits): This bill would, among other non-firearm-related things, create a default proceed rule whereby people applying for a permit to sell/manufacture/possess assault weapons or .50 caliber rifles, or to possess/manufacture machine guns, would generally be deemed to have that permit if DOJ does not deny their application within 180 days.
- AB 757 (Melendez) (*): Pro-gun Asm. Melendez has this placeholder bill in a section dealing with notifications to prohibited persons.
- AB 1471 (Travis Allen) (Silencers): This bill would create certain exemptions to California’s general prohibition on firearm silences. It would allow federally registered dealers and manufacturers of firearm silencers to sell and transfer them in interstate or foreign commerce to the extent permitted by federal law (note that Congressional Republicans are planning to significantly weaken federal law in this area). This bill would also expand the number of full-time regular peace officers permitted to possess silencers within the course of their duties to include those employed by the Highway Patrol, Dept. of Corrections, and the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.
Senate GVP Bills
SB 22 (Hill) (Law Enforcement Agency Firearms Accounting): This bill would require law enforcement agencies to adopt written procedures to account for firearms owned by that agency or its employees for official duties. The bill would require that AFS be updated to include records regarding the acquisition of firearms by an agency employee for use within the course of his or her employment and also regarding the loss, theft, or other disposal of their firearms.
SB 464 (Hill) (Gun Dealer Storage and Security): This bill would place new (but potentially problematic) requirements on gun dealers to secure their inventory and premises from vehicle break-ins by installing certain concrete or hardened steel pillars around the front of their premises and any doors or windows, unless all firearms are locked in a fireproof safe or vault.
SB 497 (Portantino) (One-Firearm Per Month): This bill would extend California’s existing one-handgun-per-month rule to long guns, though it would retain existing law’s exception for private sales/transfers and also exempt the purchase of long guns by licensed hunters.
SB 536 (Pan) (GVRO Research Data): This bill would direct DOJ to make information relating to GVROs available for research and policy purposes to researchers associated the UC Firearm Violence Research Center, subject to appropriate privacy restrictions. This bill will likely be amended to authorize DOJ to also share this information, at DOJ’s discretion, with other bona fide researchers and public agencies.
SB 785 (Wiener) (Consumer Protection/Gun Industry Immunity): This bill would help civil plaintiffs qualify for an exception to the federal firearm industry immunity law in order to gain legal standing for suits alleging that harm resulted from a violation of a state law “applicable to the sale or marketing of firearms.” This bill would expressly state that the California Civil Code’s consumer protection statutes, including its prohibitions on unfair and deceptive claims about a good or product, are specifically applicable to the sale and marketing of firearms and ammunition.
Other Senate Bills
- SB 710 (Anderson) (Silencers): This bill would generally decriminalize possession of silencers and expressly authorize use of silencers in hunting by lawful gun owners.
