Tomorrow, May 27, the state Assembly Committee on Appropriations is scheduled to hear all the bills sent to the suspense file. There are five anti-gun bills that greatly impact gun owners, sportsmen, and Second Amendment supporters. Email members of the Appropriations Committee by clicking the TAKE ACTION button below and urge them to OPPOSE AB 1663, AB 1664, AB 1673, AB 1674, and AB 1695.
Assembly Bill 1663 and Assembly Bill 1664 are similar and 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 both of these egregious bills.
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 current restriction on the number of firearms an individual can purchase within a 30 day period. Currently the “one gun a month” rule only applies to dealer sales of handguns. This legislation is a misguided attempt to expand the current one handgun per month limitation to long guns. Rather than targeting criminals, this legislation will have severe consequences for firearm collectors, competition shooters, museums, and various charitable organizations. 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. Californian’s are already required to make two trips to a dealer to purchase a single firearm. For an individual who is purchasing firearms for one of the many popular shooting sports such as Cowboy Action Shooting or Three Gun, this would mean at least six trips to a dealer, three separate sets of paper work, fees and background checks all spanned out over a three month period. Criminals will continue to ignore this law purchasing firearms illegally, ignoring this burdensome and ineffective restriction.
Assembly Bill 1695 would require the Attorney General to send notice to each individual who has applied to purchase a firearm informing him or her of laws relating to firearms, gun trafficking, and safe storage. This legislation also allows the Department of Justice to use funds in the Firearms Safety and Enforcement Special Fund for this purpose. Requiring the Attorney General to send gun law pamphlets to law-abiding gun owners will do nothing to stop the criminal misuse of firearms, because the individuals who are committing firearm-related crimes are likely not receiving the gun law pamphlets. This is just another example of government waste and abuse of gun owners. The monies paid into this fund are intended to fund the background check system in California. Because the fees paid to run these checks exceed the cost necessary to execute them, legislators in Sacramento continue to look for ways to justify the expenses by wasting resources on “feel good” programs.
Don’t forget to forward this alert to your family, friends, and fellow gun owners and sportsmen urging them to also contact the committee and urge them to OPPOSE the above anti-gun bills.
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