BRADY ORANGE COUNTY

Assembly Floor Vote Coming Soon

 ACTION ALERT  September 5, 2019

AYE on SB 61 (Portantino)

Please Contact Your California State Assembly Members and tell them to help stop gun trafficking by voting Yes on SB 61

RE: SB 61 (Portantino) – Semi-automatic centerfire rifle transfers

Summary: SB 61 will help curb gun trafficking by capping the number of new semi- automatic centerfire rifles that can be purchased in one month. The bill will also eliminate the hunting license exception that allows those under age 21 to purchase a semi-automatic centerfire rifle.

Existing Law: California law prohibits selling handguns to anyone under age 21 and prohibits, with exceptions, licensed firearms dealers from selling or transferring a long gun to a person under 21.  Additionally, since 2000, new handgun purchases from licensed firearms dealers in California have been limited to no more than one per person per 30-day period. This helps curb the illegal flow of handguns by taking the profit out of selling guns from bulk purchases on the black market. SB 61 extends this provision to semi-automatic centerfire rifles.

ATF Reports show that firearms acquired in large quantities at one time are frequently used in crime i A University of Pennsylvania study found that guns purchased in bulk were up to 64% more likely to be used for illegal purposes than guns purchased individually.ii

Long guns are increasingly used in crime in California. Of the 26,682 crime guns entered into DOJ’s Automated Firearms Systems database in 2009, 11,500 were long guns.iii Since 1999, Californians have typically purchased more long guns than handguns every yeariv and these long guns include high-powered semi-automatic rifles.

Semi-automatic centerfire rifles are frequently the weapon of choice for mass shooters. The weapons used in the recent shootings at a Garlic Festival in Gilroy and at a synagogue in Poway, California were semi-automatic centerfire rifles.

An analysis of Cal DOJ transaction data from the period January 2014 through June 2015 shows that 81.9% of long guns were sold as a single long gun purchase within a 30-day period.v The vast majority of long gun purchasers will not be impacted by the cap under SB 61. However, at the opposite end of the spectrum, an individual purchased 177 long guns in two transactions within a one month period (April 2014).vi

Brady California believes handguns and semi-automatic centerfire rifles should generally be subject to the same laws. SB 61 furthers Brady California’s goal to limit the flow of dangerous weapons into the wrong hands.

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i Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, Crime Gun Trace Reports (1999) National Report 40 (Nov. 2000) and
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, Crime Gun Trace Reports (2000) National Report 50 (July 2002).
ii Koper, Christopher S.; Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, Univ. of Penn., Crime Gun Risk Factors: Buyer, Seller, Firearm, and Transaction Characteristics Associated with Gun Trafficking and Criminal Gun Use -- A report to the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (2007). https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221074. pdf.
iii Data provided by the California Department of Justice, April 6, 2010.
iv California Department of Justice, “Dealer’s Record of Sale (Calendar Year Statistics),” http://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/forms/dros_chart.pdf?.
v Data provided by the California Department of Justice, November 3, 2015.
vi Data provided by the California Department of Justice, November 3, 2015.