BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 199 (de León) - BB devices.
Amended: January 6, 2014 Policy Vote: Public Safety 5-1
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: January 21, 2014
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 199 would prohibit the sale or manufacture of
BB devices, as defined, unless the entire exterior surface of
the device is brightly colored or transparent, as specified.
This bill would also expand the definition of "BB device" to
include instruments that expel a projectile of any size through
the force of air pressure, gas pressure, or spring action.
Fiscal Impact:
Non-reimbursable local enforcement costs offset to a degree
by fine revenue to the extent the restrictions on the sale
and manufacture of imitation firearms to include BB devices
result in increased violations of current law related to
imitation firearms.
Potential near-term loss of sales tax revenue of $40,000
(General Fund) for every $1 million in annual BB device
sales impacted in California to the extent the restrictions
on the purchase, sale, and manufacture of imitation firearms
result in reduced sales of BB devices. Future year impact
could be somewhat mitigated to the extent consumers shift to
purchases of alternative devices.
Potential court-related costs (General Fund*) for
additional misdemeanor and/or civil court filings resulting
from increased violations of law pertaining to imitation
firearms.
While the impact of this bill independently on local jails
is likely to be minor, the cumulative effect of expanded
misdemeanors could create General Fund cost pressure on
capital outlay, staffing, programming, the courts, and other
resources in the context of criminal justice realignment.
Potential future cost savings in medical, emergency
services, administrative and criminal justice costs to the
extent the provisions of this bill reduce the incidence of
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firearms-related injuries and death.
*Trial Court Trust Fund
Background: In December 2010, a 13-year-old was shot and
paralyzed by a city police officer in Los Angeles when officers
investigating burglaries came across three youth playing with
dark-colored pellet guns in a street at twilight. More recently,
on October 22, 2013, a 13-year-old boy from Santa Rosa was
tragically shot and killed by Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies
who mistook a plastic airsoft gun he was carrying for an actual
AK-47 assault rifle. A June 1990 study prepared by the Police
Executive Research Forum under a cooperative agreement with the
Department of Justice, Toy Guns: Involvement in Crime and
Encounters with Police, found that there were over 200 incidents
per year in which imitation firearms were mistaken for real
firearms.
This bill seeks to reduce the incidence of mistaken encounters
involving imitation firearms.
Existing law prohibits a person from furnishing a BB device,
defined to include a spot marker gun, to a minor without the
permission of the minor's parent or guardian (Penal Code (PC) §
19915), and prohibits selling a BB device to a minor (PC
§19910). Violation of either of these prohibitions is a
misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail, a fine of
up to $1,000, or both.
Existing law generally prohibits anyone from purchasing,
selling, manufacturing, shipping, transporting, distributing, or
receiving an imitation firearm (PC § 20165), subject to specific
exceptions. A person is liable for a civil fine of not more than
$10,000 for a violation of this prohibition. Existing law
excludes BB devices from the definition of imitation firearm for
these purposes (PC § 16700(b)(2)).
Existing law provides that any person who changes, alters,
removes, or obliterates any coloration or markings that are
required by any applicable state or federal law or regulation
for any imitation firearm in a way that makes the imitation
firearm or device look more like a firearm, is guilty of a
misdemeanor (PC § 20150).
Proposed Law: This bill would do the following:
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Include BB devices within the definition of "imitation
firearm" for purposes of the prohibition of the purchase,
sale, manufacture, and distribution of imitation firearms,
but exclude spot marker guns that expel a projectile larger
than 10 millimeters in caliber.
Specify that BB devices are subject to the requirements
of PC § 16700, which require all BB devices sold, or
manufactured for sale in California be either: 1) white,
bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green,
bright blue, bright pink, or bright purple, either singly
or as the predominant color in combination with other
colors in any pattern, or, 2) constructed of transparent or
translucent materials which permits unmistakable
observation of the device's complete contents.
Delete the 6 millimeter caliber restriction on the
projectile size from the definition of a BB device.
Prior Legislation: SB 798 (de León) 2011 would have made the
provision imposing a civil fine on the sale, manufacture,
transportation, receipt, or distribution of imitation firearms
for commercial purposes applicable to BB devices. The bill was
later amended to remove the state preemption of any local
ordinances regarding the manufacture, sale, or possession of
imitation firearms, BB devices, and air rifles. This bill failed
passage in Assembly Public Safety.
AB 2333 (Solorio) 2012 would have authorized local law
enforcement to issue a warning or impose a $100 fine on a parent
when his/her child openly displays or exposes a BB device in a
public place, as specified. This bill was vetoed by Governor
with the following message:
This bill would allow police officers to issue a
warning or impose a $100 fine on a parent when their
child breaks the law by having a BB gun in a public
place. Police officers can already educate parents
about accountability and the responsible use of BB
guns when appropriate. I urge them to do so.
SB 1315 (de León) Chapter 214/2012 creates an exemption from the
general state preemption of the field regarding the regulation
of imitation firearms, to allow the County of Los Angeles, and
any city within the County of Los Angeles, to enact and enforce
an ordinance or resolution that is more restrictive than state
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law regulating the manufacture, sale, possession, or use of any
BB device, toy gun, replica of a firearm, or other device, that
is so substantially similar to an existing firearm as to lead a
reasonable person to perceive that the device is a firearm and
expels a projectile that is no more than 16 millimeters in
diameter.
Staff Comments: By expanding the definition of "BB device" and
applying the restrictions on the sale and manufacture of
imitation firearms to include BB devices, this bill would expand
the scope of existing misdemeanor crimes related to imitation
firearms. The DOJ reported 433 arrests in 2013 for violations of
the prohibition against altering/changing an imitation firearm
to look more like a real firearm. To the extent the new
coloration requirements on BB devices result in additional
violations of this offense would result in increased
non-reimbursable local enforcement costs offset to a degree by
fine revenue.
To the extent the coloration requirements applied to BB devices
have the effect of reducing the number of BB devices sold in
California, there would be an impact to both local and state
sales tax revenues. The Board of Equalization estimates that
Californians spend approximately $9 million annually on BB
device purchases (based on the estimated California population
share of a U.S. estimate made by IBISWorld-Industry Market
Research). For every $1 million reduction in annual sales, state
sales tax revenues are estimated to be impacted by approximately
$40,000 (General Fund). It is estimated that the impact is
likely in the near term, with the impact in future years
projected to be somewhat mitigated to the extent consumers shift
to purchases of alternative devices.
The creation of new or expanded misdemeanors has historically
been analyzed by this Committee to result in non-reimbursable
state mandated costs for local law enforcement and
incarceration. Staff notes, however, that the creation and
expansion of misdemeanors taken cumulatively could increase the
statewide adult jail population to a degree that could
potentially impact the flexibility of counties to manage their
jail populations recently exacerbated under 2011 Public Safety
Realignment. While the provisions of this bill are likely to be
minor, the cumulative effect of all new misdemeanors could
create unknown General Fund cost pressure on capital outlay,
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staffing, programming, the courts, and other resources.
To the extent the provisions of this bill serve to reduce the
incidence of firearms-related injuries and death, could result
in potential future cost savings. A study by the non-profit
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) reported
over 105,000 incidences of firearm injury and death in 2010
nationally, with an estimated societal cost of over $174 billion
in work lost, medical care, insurance, criminal justice
expenses, and pain and suffering. At a unit level, the study
reported a governmental cost of $187,000 to $582,000 per firearm
fatality in medical and mental health care, emergency services,
and administrative and criminal justice costs. The estimated
societal cost per firearm injury or fatality, including lost
work productivity and quality of life was reported at nearly
$430,000 to $5 million, respectively.
Recommended Amendments: This bill revises and expands the
definition of "BB device" to remove any reference to the size of
the projectile. For code clarity and to ensure the revised
definition is not interpreted to include toy guns (which expel
projectiles through the force of air pressure or spring action),
which could inadvertently create violations of current law to
sell or furnish these types of devices to minors under PC
§§19910 and 19915, the author may wish to consider an amendment
as follows:
As used in this part, "BB device" means any instrument that
expels a projectile, such as a BB or a pellet, not exceeding 6mm
caliber, but not including a toy gun , through the force of air
pressure, gas pressure, or spring action, or any spot marker
gun.