BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 38 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 14, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Mike Gatto, Chair SB 38 (De Leon) - As Amended: August 6, 2013 Policy Committee: Public SafetyVote:7-0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: Yes Reimbursable: Yes SUMMARY This bill requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to establish a 30-day amnesty period, beginning not later than July 1, 2015, during which time a person prohibited from possessing a gun may surrender any gun to local law enforcement without prosecution for that possession. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires DOJ to provide written notification of the amnesty period to all prohibited persons eligible to participate in the amnesty period (no felons are eligible to participate in the amnesty program) by first-class mail no later than 60 calendar days prior to the amnesty period. The notification shall specify the guns possessed by the prohibited person and provide instructions for the surrender of the weapon(s). 2)Requires that for each gun received by a local law enforcement agency from a prohibited person during amnesty, the agency shall submit to the DOJ the following information: a) The name of the prohibited person that surrendered the gun. b) The person's date of birth. c) A description of the gun(s) surrendered, including serial numbers. d) Any other information deemed necessary by the DOJ. 3)Requires DOJ to enter the information received from local law enforcement in the Armed Prohibited Persons System (APPS) to create a record of each gun surrendered during the amnesty period. SB 38 Page 2 4)Provides that at the end of the amnesty period, a person prohibited from possessing a gun and eligible to participate in the amnesty program, who maintains possession of a gun, is subject to a civil fine of up to $2,500 per gun, in addition to existing criminal penalties. 5)Requires that any firearm surrendered to a local law enforcement pursuant to this program shall be destroyed, as specified. FISCAL EFFECT 1)One-time special fund (Dealer Record of Sale Account (DROS)) costs to DOJ, likely less than $150,000, to enter information received from local law enforcement into APPS. This assumes 12,000 amnesty-eligible persons in APPS (excludes an estimated 8,000 felons) and minor data base adjustments. 2)One-time DROS costs to DOJ, likely in the $75,000 range, to provide notification by mail to non-felons on the APPS list. According to DOJ, this process will require manual sorting. 3)One-time minor state-reimbursable costs (DROS), likely less than $75,000, for local law enforcement agencies to report specified information to DOJ regarding guns surrendered via amnesty. This assumes about 25% of those eligible surrender guns. 4)Potential DROS savings to DOJ, potentially in the low millions of dollars, to the extent amnesty reduces the number of APPS investigations and confiscations, which require a significant amount of personnel hours. 5)Potential state and local law enforcement and incarceration savings, potentially in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the extent prohibited persons who surrender guns would have otherwise been charged, convicted, and committed for illegal possession. 6)Increase in civil fine revenues, potentially in the low millions of dollars, to the extent the $2,500 civil fee is collected. (DROS is projected to have a year-end fund balance of $10.9 million in 2013-14, $10.6 million in 2014-15, and $11.9 million in 2015-16. This presumes the $24 million SB 140 SB 38 Page 3 appropriation is expended equally over the three fiscal years.) COMMENTS 1)Rationale . DOJ estimates there are about 20,000 persons with about 39,000 guns, including almost 2,000 assault weapons, on the APPS list. These persons, by law, are not allowed to possess guns. Due primarily to state and local fiscal constraints, this backlog continues to grow. The author's intent is to provide a one-time cost-effective amnesty window to reduce this growing backlog. 2)DOJ's Armed Prohibited Persons System (APPS) is an online database that cross-references persons who possess a gun and who, subsequent to possession of that gun, become a member of the class of persons legally prohibited from possessing a gun. Prohibition ranges from lifetime bans for anyone convicted of a felony or addicted to a narcotic, as well as specified violent misdemeanors, to 10-year bans for numerous misdemeanors involving violence, to five-year bans for specified misdemeanors or for being found to be a danger to self or others, to temporary bans based on protective orders. Law enforcement agencies have access to APPS and are thus able to identify persons prohibited from possessing a gun. According to DOJ, about half of the persons on the APPS list are prohibited due to criminal history; about 30% due to mental health status, and about 20% due to restraining orders. 3)Current law authorizes DOJ to use DROS , which is funded by a $19 fee on gun purchases at the point-of-sale, for gun-related regulatory activities, including enforcement activities related to APPS (SB 819 (Leno), Statutes of 2011). 4)Clarification recommended. It is not clear how the timing would work between DOJ's notification to persons on the APPS list that an amnesty period will begin on a specified date and the start of the amnesty period. Would ongoing efforts by DOJ and local law enforcement to disarm prohibited persons SB 38 Page 4 continue up to and during the amnesty period? 5)The proposed amnesty cannot address prohibited possession of long guns because, prior to January 1, 2014, only transfer records pertaining to handguns and assault weapons are maintained by DOJ. Thus APPS does not include rifles or shotguns prohibited persons possess pre-2014. A person who appears on the APPS list due to having purchased a handgun may have in their possession that handgun and a long gun, or several long guns, meaning a prohibited person could participate in the amnesty program by turning in the handgun that DOJ records reflect them having legally acquired, while maintaining illegal possession of long guns that DOJ has no record of that person possessing. 6)Related legislation includes SB 140 (Leno), Statutes of 2013, which appropriated $24 million from DROS to DOJ to fund enforcement of illegal gun possession by relieving weapons from prohibited persons. Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081