California: Anti-Gun Bills Eligible for Floor Votes as the Legislature Enters the Final Two Weeks of Session

Friday was the deadline for the Appropriations Committees of both chambers to finish passing bills from the suspense file to make them eligible for the floor. Most anti-gun bills have advanced, with some amendments, making them eligible for floor votes at any time. Additionally, last week, the Senate Public Safety Committee also passed Senate Joint Resolution 7, and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee passed Assembly Bill 135. These are also eligible for votes on the floor. It's important that you contact your legislators and urge their opposition to the many anti-gun bills that could come up for a vote. 

Please click the “Take Action” button to contact your legislators. 

Eligible for the Senate floor:

Assembly Bill 28 places an excise tax of 11% on the sales price of all firearms, firearm precursor parts, and ammunition. These taxes are to be collected from California retailers and placed in a newly created “gun violence” fund for appropriation by the state legislature. It is unjust to saddle law-abiding gun owners with special taxes. Such a measure makes it more expensive for law-abiding citizens to exercise a constitutional right and discourages them from practicing to be safe and proficient with their firearms for purposes such as self-defense, competition, and hunting.

Assembly Bill 574 requires gun owners, when filling out the Dealer Record of Sale, to affirm that they have checked and confirmed possession of every firearm they own or possess within the past 30 days. This requirement runs contrary to the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and is an additional burden for gun owners, especially those with firearms stored in multiple residences or in safe deposit boxes, that can make them ineligible to purchase another firearm until they visit all of those locations.

Assembly Bill 732 goes above and beyond federal law in its requirement for individuals to relinquish their firearms upon conviction of a prohibiting offense. In addition, it creates a verification and enforcement procedure that can potentially violate the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Assembly Bill 733 prohibits state and local government entities from selling off surplus firearms, ammunition, and body armor. This prevents them from being good stewards of taxpayer money and prevents the public from buying these taxpayer funded items, which are lawful to own.

Assembly Bill 1089 expands California’s ban on private citizens, and non-professional users, making firearms with CNC milling machines, or possessing CNC milling machines that have the “primary” or “intended” function of manufacturing firearms, to also include 3D printers. This is simply another scheme to harass law-abiding hobbyists by preventing them from using modern manufacturing techniques for otherwise lawful purposes.

Assembly Bill 1420 broadens the grounds for firearm dealer inspections and punitive measures for technical violations. In addition, it requires that prospective firearm purchasers and recipients list their email address on the DROS forms.

Assembly Bill 1587 requires that credit card issuers use specified Merchant Category Codes to designate firearm and ammunition retailers.

Senate Joint Resolution 7 calls for a constitutional convention to amend the U.S. Constitution, in order to spread California-style gun control schemes nationwide.

Assembly Bill 135 allows the Attorney General to unilaterally increase the fee to conduct ammunition eligibility checks. It repeals the language in existing law specifying that increases are not to exceed “the increase in the California Consumer Price Index.”

Eligible for the Assembly floor:

Senate Bill 2, among other things, creates new subjective criteria for the issuance of carry permits to allow authorities to arbitrarily deny applicants, restricts permit holders to carry only handguns registered to themselves, increases the requirements to apply for a permit, and increases “gun-free zones” where law-abiding citizens are left defenseless.

Senate Bill 241 mandates that licensed firearm dealers and their employees complete an annual training program that the Department of Justice is to create.

Senate Bill 368 mandates that licensed firearm dealers offer the service of storing firearms for safekeeping, prohibits firearm dealers from offering items in games of chance (such as by raffles), and expands prohibited persons categories for certain misdemeanor crimes.

Senate Bill 452, as amended, sets forth the process to prohibit non-microstamped semi-automatic pistols from being sold through licensed dealers if the Department of Justice determines the technology is viable and available by 2028. In addition, it also prohibits replacing a microstamping component on such a handgun, unless it is replaced with another “valid” microstamping component. In recent weeks, a federal court struck down the microstamping requirement, as well as other required features for handgun models to be placed on the California handgun roster. While the attorney general has appealed the decision, he did not appeal the microstamping requirement. To read more about California's microstamping law, please click here.​

Again, please click the “Take Action” button above to contact committee members and ask them to OPPOSE these bills.