October 5, 2023
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
If you think that our United States Constitutional Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms is not being challenged, please read the following firearm bills that Governor Gavin Newsom has signed and were chartered on September 26th and 27th:
SB 2, Portantino. Firearms.
Existing law prohibits a person from carrying a concealed firearm or carrying a loaded firearm in public. Existing law authorizes a licensing authority, as specified, if good cause exists for the issuance, and subject to certain other criteria including, among other things, the applicant is of good moral character and has completed a specified course of training, to issue a license to carry a concealed handgun or to carry a loaded and exposed handgun, as specified.
Under existing law, the required course of training for an applicant is no more than 16 hours and covers firearm safety and laws regarding the permissible use of a firearm.
This bill would require the licensing authority to issue or renew a license if the applicant is not a disqualified person for the license and the applicant is at least 21 years of age. The bill would remove the good character and good cause requirements from the issuance criteria. Under the bill, the applicant would be a disqualified person if they, among other things, are reasonably likely to be a danger to self, others, or the community at large, as specified.
This bill would add the requirement that the applicant be the recorded owner, with the Department of Justice, of the pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person. This bill would change the training requirement to be no less than 16 hours in length and would add additional subjects to the course including, among other things, the safe storage and legal transportation of firearms.
Existing law requires an agency issuing a license described above to set forth specified information on the license, including, among other things, the licensee’s name, occupation, and reason for desiring a license to carry the weapon.
This bill would revise that information to include, among other things, the licensee’s driver’s license or identification number, fingerprints, and information relating to the date of expiration of the license, and would remove the requirement that the license detail the reason for desiring a license to carry the weapon.
Existing law requires a licensing authority to charge an additional fee in an amount equal to reasonable processing costs for a new license. Existing law also prohibits a licensing authority from imposing, among other things, a requirement or condition that an applicant pay additional funds or obtain liability insurance.
Under existing law, it is a crime to bring a firearm into a state or local building, and makes it a crime to bring a loaded firearm into, or upon the grounds of, any residence of the Governor, any other constitutional officer, or Member of the Legislature. Existing law exempts a licensee from that prohibition if, among other things, the licensee has a valid license to carry the firearm.
This bill would remove those exemptions, except as specified. The bill would make it a crime to bring an unloaded firearm into, or upon the grounds of, any residence of the Governor, any other constitutional officer, or Member of the Legislature. The bill would also prohibit a licensee from carrying a firearm to specified locations, including, among other places, a building designated for a court proceeding and a place of worship, as defined, with specific exceptions.
Existing law, the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995, makes it a crime to possess a firearm in a place that the person knows, or reasonably should know, is a school zone. Existing law defines a school zone as an area in, or on the grounds of, a public or private school providing instruction in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, or within a distance of 1,000 feet from the grounds of the public or private school.
Existing law provides exceptions to that crime, including if a person with a valid concealed carry license who is carrying the firearm described in the license in an area that is not in, or on the grounds of, a public or private school and when a firearm is an unloaded pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed on the person and is in a locked container or within the locked trunk of a motor vehicle.
This bill would revise the exception for a person who has a valid concealed carry license to permit them to carry a specified firearm in an area that is not within any building, real property, or parking area under the control of a public or private school, or on a street or sidewalk immediately adjacent to a building, real property, or parking area under the control of that public or private school, as specified.
Existing law authorizes a licensing authority to impose reasonable restrictions on the time, place, manner, and circumstances when a licensee may carry a firearm capable of being concealed.
While carrying a firearm, this bill would prohibit a licensee from, among other things, consuming an alcoholic beverage or controlled substance and from falsely representing that the licensee is a peace officer.
Gun groups like Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) have already filed suit, attacking the new law as a slap in the face of the Bruen decision: the Supreme Court ruled that New York’s law was unconstitutional and that the ability to carry a pistol in public was a constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
AB 28, Gabriel. Firearms and ammunition: excise tax.
Existing law establishes the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program, administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections, to award competitive grants for the purpose of violence intervention and prevention.
This bill, the Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Act, would, commencing July 1, 2024, impose an excise tax in the amount of 11% of the gross receipts from the retail sale in this state of a firearm, firearm precursor part, and ammunition, as specified. The tax would be collected by the state pursuant to the Fee Collection Procedures Law. The bill would require that the revenues collected be deposited in the Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury.
The bill would require the moneys received in the fund to be used to fund various gun violence prevention, education, research, response, and investigation programs, as specified. The bill would require the Director of Finance to transfer, as a loan, $2,400,000 from the General Fund to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to implement these provisions, as specified. The bill would require each licensed firearms dealer, firearms manufacturer, and ammunition vendor to register with the department for a certificate, as specified. The bill would also provide procedures for the issuance, revocation, and reinstatement of a permit.
This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 2/3 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.
AB 92, Connolly. Body armor: prohibition.
Existing law makes it a felony for a person who has been convicted of a violent felony to purchase, own, or possess body armor. Existing law authorizes a person subject to that prohibition, whose employment, livelihood, or safety is dependent on the ability to legally possess and use body armor, to file a petition for an exception to the prohibition with the chief of police or county sheriff of the jurisdiction in which the person seeks to possess and use the body armor, as provided.
This bill would make it a misdemeanor for a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm under the laws of this state to purchase, own, or possess body armor, as specified.
AB 301, Bauer-Kahan. Gun violence restraining orders: body armor.
Existing law authorizes a court to issue an ex parte gun violence restraining order prohibiting the subject of the petition from having custody or control of, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive a firearm or ammunition when it is shown that there is a substantial likelihood that the subject of the petition poses a significant danger of harm to themselves or to another person in the near future by having custody or control of, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm, and that the order is necessary to prevent personal injury to themselves or to another.
Existing law requires the court, when determining whether grounds for a gun violence restraining order exists, to consider evidence of, among other things, a recent threat of violence by the subject of the petition, and also authorizes the court to consider evidence of, among other things, recent acquisition of firearms, ammunition, or other deadly weapons by the subject of the petition.
This bill would additionally authorize the court to consider evidence of acquisition of body armor when determining whether grounds for a gun violence restraining order exist.
AB 97, Rodriguez. Firearms: unserialized firearms.
Existing law requires a person that is manufacturing a firearm or assembling a firearm from unserialized components, to apply to the Department of Justice for a unique mark of identification and to affix that mark to the firearm, as specified. Existing law prohibits a person, corporation, or firm from knowingly manufacturing or assembling, or to knowingly cause, allow, facilitate, aid, or abet the manufacture or assembling of, a firearm that is not imprinted with a valid state or federal serial number or mark of identification. Under existing law, a person who knowingly possesses a firearm that does not have a valid state or federal serial number or mark of identification is guilty of a misdemeanor.
This bill would, until January 1, 2033, require the Department of Justice to collect and report specified information, including, among other things, the number and disposition of arrests made for violations of the provisions mentioned above, as specified. The bill would require the department to prepare and distribute a report, as specified, commencing on July 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, that includes the data collected.
AB 574, Jones-Sawyer. Firearms: dealer records of sale.
Existing law requires, except as exempted, any sale, loan, or transfer of a firearm to be conducted through a licensed firearm dealer, as specified.
Existing law requires each firearm dealer to keep a register or record of each firearm transaction and requires that register or record to include certain specified information, including information about the purchaser, information about the firearm, and the answers to certain questions by the purchaser or transferee relating to their eligibility to own or possess a firearm.
This bill would, beginning on March 1, 2025, additionally require the register or record to include the acknowledgment by the purchaser or transferee that they have, within the past 30 days, confirmed possession of every firearm that they own or possess.
A complete list of the bills the Governor signed on September 26, 2023 is below:
- AB 28 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) – Firearms and ammunition: excise tax.
- AB 92 by Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael) – Body armor: prohibition.
- AB 97 by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez (D-Pomona) – Firearms: unserialized firearms.
- AB 301 by Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) – Gun violence restraining orders: body armor.
- AB 355 by Assemblymember Juan Alanis (R-Modesto) – Firearms: assault weapons: exception for peace officer training.
- AB 455 by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) – Firearms: prohibited persons.
- AB 574 by Assemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D-Los Angeles) – Firearms: dealer records of sale.
- AB 724 by Assemblymember Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) – Firearms: safety certificate instructional materials.
- AB 725 by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) – Firearms: reporting of lost and stolen firearms.
- AB 732 by Assemblymember Mike Fong (D-Alhambra) – Crimes: relinquishment of firearms.
- AB 762 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) – California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program.
- AB 818 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) – Protective orders.
- AB 1089 by Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson) – Firearms.
- AB 1406 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – Firearms: waiting periods.
- AB 1420 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Firearms.
- AB 1483 by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim) – Firearms: purchases.
- AB 1587 by Assemblymember Philip Ting (D-San Francisco) – Financial transactions: firearms merchants: merchant category code.
- AB 1598 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Gun violence: firearm safety education.
- SB 2 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) – Firearms.
- SB 241 by Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) – Firearms: dealer requirements.
- SB 368 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) – Firearms: requirements for licensed dealers.
- SB 417 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) – Firearms: licensed dealers.
- SB 452 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) – Firearms.
The governor has until October 14 to sign or veto bills or let them become law without his signature.
The California State Legislature has adjourned until January 3, 2024.
Legislative Portal links- Express your support or opposition to a bill or directly to the Legislative committee currently reviewing it (as an individual, not as a member of RW or GSRW)– click here, or the bill’s author- click here, enter your bill # and look for tab at top of the bill page labeled “Comments to Author”
