BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
S
2013-2014 Regular Session
B
2
9
3
SB 293 (DeSaulnier)
As Introduced February 14, 2013
Hearing date: April 16, 2013
Penal Code
SM:mc
OWNER AUTHORIZED HANDGUNS
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: SB 697 (DeSaulnier) - died in this
Committee, 2009
AB 2235 (DeSaulnier) - died on
suspense in Senate
Appropriations, 2008
AB 1471 (Feuer) - Chap. 572, Statutes of 2007
Support: California Chapters of the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence; Law Center to Prevent Gun
Violence; several private citizens
Opposition:California Association of Firearms Retailers;
California Right to Carry; California Sportsman's
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Lobby; Crossroads of the West; National Shooting
Sports Foundation; Outdoor Sportsmen's Coalition
of California; Safari Club International; National
Rifle Association; California Association of
Federal Firearms Licensees; California Rifle and
Pistol Association; several letters and phone
calls from private citizens
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD A SYSTEM OF "OWNER-AUTHORIZED HANDGUNS'" BE ENACTED, AS
SPECIFIED?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to (1) define an
"owner-authorized handgun"; (2) require the Attorney
General, beginning July 1, 2014, and every July 1
thereafter through 2019, to submit a written report, as
specified, to the Governor and the Legislature summarizing
the current availability of owner-authorized handguns, and
continue to submit reports until he or she has reported
that owner-authorized handguns are available for retail
sale; (3) amend handgun safety requirements, for both
revolvers and pistols, beginning 18 months after the
release of a report by the Attorney General reporting that
owner-authorized handguns are available for retail sale, as
specified, to require that all handguns must be
owner-authorized handguns, as defined, except that this
shall not apply to the sale, loan, or transfer of a
revolver manufactured in or imported into this state prior
to that date; (4) establish minimum performance standards
for "owner-authorized handguns," as specified; and (5)
provide that, beginning 18 months following the release of
a report by the Attorney General reporting that
owner-authorized handguns are available for retail sale, as
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specified, any person who intentionally disables or
circumvents the technology of an owner-authorized handgun,
other than a licensed firearms dealer as necessary to
program the owner-authorized handgun, is guilty of a
misdemeanor, punishable by up to 6 months in jail, a fine
of up to $1,000, or both.
Current law provides that beginning January 1, 2001, except
as specified, any person in this state who manufactures or
causes to be manufactured, imports into the state for sale,
keeps for sale, offers or exposes for sale, gives, or lends
any unsafe handgun shall be punished by imprisonment in a
county jail not exceeding one year. (Penal Code § 32000.)
Current law defines an unsafe handgun as any pistol,
revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon
the person, which lacks various specified safety mechanisms
and does not pass specified safety tests. (Penal Code §
31910.)
Current law also provides that, beginning January 1, 2010,
all semiautomatic pistols that are not already listed on
the "not unsafe handgun" roster, must be designed and
equipped with a microscopic array of characters that
identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol,
etched or otherwise imprinted in two or more places on the
interior surface or internal working parts of the pistol,
and that are transferred by imprinting on each cartridge
case when the firearm is fired, provided that the
Department of Justice (DOJ) certifies that the technology
used to create the imprint is available to more than one
manufacturer unencumbered by any patent restrictions. The
Attorney General may also approve a method of equal or
greater reliability and effectiveness in identifying the
specific serial number of a firearm from spent cartridge
casings discharged by that firearm than that which is set
forth in this paragraph, to be thereafter required as
otherwise set forth by this paragraph where the Attorney
General certifies that this new method is also unencumbered
by any patent restrictions. Approval by the Attorney
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General shall include notice of that fact via regulations
adopted by the Attorney General for purposes of
implementing that method for purposes of this paragraph.
(Penal Code § 31910.)
This bill would require that, commencing 18 months
following the release of a report by the Attorney General
to the Legislature and the Governor reporting that
owner-authorized handguns are available for retail sale, as
specified, a handgun that it is not an owner-authorized
handgun will be deemed "unsafe." However, this requirement
shall not apply to the sale, loan, or transfer of a handgun
manufactured in or imported into this state prior to that
date.
This bill provides that, in addition to complying with all
other specified handgun safety requirements,
owner-authorized handguns shall comply with the following
performance standards:
The firearm shall not fail to recognize the
authorized user, and shall not falsely recognize an
unauthorized user, more than one time per thousand
recognition attempts.
The time from first contact to use recognition and
firearm enablement shall be no more than 0.5 seconds.
The time from loss of contact with the authorized
user to firearm disablement shall be no more than 0.5
seconds.
When the firearm is enabled, the "ready" condition
shall be indicated by a visible indicator.
If the recognition technology on the firearm is
battery operated, the firearm shall be equipped with a
low power indicator that emits an audible signal.
If the user is not recognized, or if the power
supply fails, the firearm shall be inoperable.
Enabling authorized user information shall be
stored in the firearm as permanent memory that is
restored when power is restored.
The firearm shall be capable of use by more than
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one authorized user and, if the firearm uses hand
recognition technology, it shall recognize either of
the authorized user's hands.
This bill defines an "owner-authorized handgun" as a
handgun that has a permanent programmable biometric or
other permanent programmable feature as part of its
original manufacture that renders the handgun incapable of
being fired except when activated by the lawful owner or
other users authorized by the lawful owner, and that cannot
be readily deactivated.
This bill provides:
An owner-authorized handgun shall only be
programmed by a licensed firearms dealer.
Biometric data collected for purposes of
programming the owner-authorized handgun shall not be
used for any purpose other than programming the
owner-authorized handgun.
The Department of Justice shall not retain any
biometric data that may be stored in an
owner-authorized handgun.
This bill would require that beginning 18 months following
the release of a report by the Attorney General to the
Legislature and the Governor reporting that
owner-authorized handguns are available for retail sale, no
handgun may be submitted for testing by DOJ as a safe
handgun if it is not an owner-authorized handgun, as
defined.
This bill would provide that the Attorney General shall,
commencing July 1, 2014, and every July 1 thereafter
through July 1, 2019, submit a written report to the
Governor and the Legislature summarizing the current
availability of owner-authorized handguns, as defined. The
Attorney General shall continue to submit reports until he
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or she has reported that owner-authorized handguns are
available for retail sale.
Each report shall state whether owner-authorized
handguns are available for retail sale, and if not,
what progress, if any, has been made in the
development of that technology since the previous
report.
Each report shall state what, if any, pressures
exist within the firearms industry to deliberately
withhold owner-authorized handguns from the market.
The Attorney General shall consult with law
enforcement agencies, firearms industry
representatives, private technology providers, the
State Department of Public Health, the University of
California, other higher learning institutions, and
other appropriate parties in making reports and
recommendations pursuant to this section.
Each report shall explicitly state all sources
consulted and relied upon, including the names and
affiliations of those sources, and shall be made
publicly accessible.
Once the Attorney General has reported that
owner-authorized handguns are being produced and
offered for sale in any state or country, the Attorney
General shall contact the manufacturer in writing and
inform it of the provisions of California law relating
to owner-authorized handguns. The Attorney General
shall invite the manufacturer to submit its
owner-authorized handguns for testing at the
manufacturer's expense.
Owner-authorized handguns shall be deemed available
for retail sale when at least one domestic or foreign
manufacturer has submitted its owner-authorized
handgun for testing and the Attorney General has
determined that it meets certain performance
standards, as specified, provided that the Attorney
General may not certify that "owner-authorized
handguns" are available for retail sale, unless the
Attorney General has determined that either of the
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following requirements apply:
o The manufacturer has the capacity to meet
the reasonably expected demand of California
residents for the new handguns; there is one
technology that meets the required standards; and
the manufacturer has provided written assurances
that any applicable patents will either not be
asserted or will be available for licensing on a
nonexclusive basis on reasonable and
nondiscriminatory terms.
o There are at least two technologies that
meet the required standards.
This bill provides that the requirement for the Attorney
General to submitting this report is inoperative on January
1, 2020, as specified.
This bill provides that beginning 18 months following the
release of a report by the Attorney General to the
Legislature and the Governor reporting that
owner-authorized handguns are available for retail sale, as
specified, any person who intentionally disables or
circumvents the technology of an owner-authorized handgun,
other than a licensed dealer as necessary to program the
owner-authorized handgun, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the last several years, severe overcrowding in
California's prisons has been the focus of evolving and
expensive litigation relating to conditions of confinement.
On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court ordered
California to reduce its prison population to 137.5 percent
of design capacity within two years from the date of its
ruling, subject to the right of the state to seek
modifications in appropriate circumstances.
Beginning in early 2007, Senate leadership initiated a
policy to hold legislative proposals which could further
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aggravate the prison overcrowding crisis through new or
expanded felony prosecutions. Under the resulting policy
known as "ROCA" (which stands for "Receivership/
Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation"), the Committee held
measures which created a new felony, expanded the scope or
penalty of an existing felony, or otherwise increased the
application of a felony in a manner which could exacerbate
the prison overcrowding crisis. Under these principles,
ROCA was applied as a content-neutral, provisional measure
necessary to ensure that the Legislature did not erode
progress towards reducing prison overcrowding by passing
legislation which would increase the prison population.
ROCA necessitated many hard and difficult decisions for the
Committee.
In January of 2013, just over a year after the enactment of
the historic Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, the
State of California filed court documents seeking to vacate
or modify the federal court order to reduce the state's
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity. The
State submitted in part that the, ". . . population in the
State's 33 prisons has been reduced by over 24,000 inmates
since October 2011 when public safety realignment went into
effect, by more than 36,000 inmates compared to the 2008
population . . . , and by nearly 42,000 inmates since 2006
. . . ." Plaintiffs, who oppose the state's motion, argue
in part that, "California prisons, which currently average
150% of capacity, and reach as high as 185% of capacity at
one prison, continue to deliver health care that is
constitutionally deficient."
In an order dated January 29, 2013, the federal court
granted the state a six-month extension to achieve the
137.5 % prisoner population cap by December 31st of this
year.
The ongoing litigation indicates that prison capacity and
related issues concerning conditions of confinement remain
unsettled. However, in light of the real gains in reducing
the prison population that have been made, although even
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greater reductions are required by the court, the Committee
will review each ROCA bill with more flexible
consideration. The following questions will inform this
consideration:
whether a measure erodes realignment;
whether a measure addresses a crime which is
directly dangerous to the physical safety of others
for which there is no other reasonably appropriate
sanction;
whether a bill corrects a constitutional infirmity
or legislative drafting error; whether a measure
proposes penalties which are proportionate, and cannot
be achieved through any other reasonably appropriate
remedy; and
whether a bill addresses a major area of public
safety or criminal activity for which there is no
other reasonable, appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1. Need for This Bill
According to the author:
SB 293 would require all newly manufactured or
imported handguns in California to be
owner-authorized, or personalized in a way that
would allow them to be fired only by authorized
persons. This requirement will take effect
eighteen months following the release of a report
by the California Attorney General that
owner-authorized handguns are available for
retail sale.
Owner-authorized handguns will help to prevent
both unintentional and intentional gun violence.
Injuries, homicides, suicides, and accidental
shootings could be significantly reduced in
California. The illegal transfer of firearms
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could also be reduced.
An owner-authorized handgun could not be fired by
a child or teen unless authorized by the parent
or legal guardian, thereby establishing some
parental control over the weapon. This would
help prevent young people from accidentally
shooting themselves and others, or committing
suicide or homicide with handguns. Most parents
would say that they keep their firearms locked
away from their children, but all too often kids
find the gun and tragedy follows.
According to the Center for Disease Control,
suicide is the fourth leading cause of death of
children and teens; over 43% are committed with
firearms. Despondent teens, or other depressed
individuals who are not authorized users, would
be unable to commit suicide with a personalized
handgun.
2. Background - The Product-Safety Approach to Reducing
Gun Violence
In a 2002 issue of the journal "The Future of Children," a
publication of The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs at Princeton University and The
Brookings Institution, researchers wrote the following:
The Promise of Personalized Guns
Some researchers believe that the most important
change that could be made in the design of
handguns to reduce the incidence of gun-related
injuries, especially to children, would be to
personalize guns. A "smart" gun would rely upon
a personal identification number (PIN), a
magnetic ring worn by the user, a radio-frequency
device on the user's clothing or person, or
fingerprint recognition technology to ensure that
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only an authorized user could actually fire the
gun. Some technology to produce smart guns
already exists; other technology seems feasible
in the near future.
Theoretically, handgun personalization would
prevent unauthorized persons of any age-not just
young children-from operating a firearm. Until
these types of guns are widely available for use,
however, their effectiveness remains unmeasured.
It is not known how many firearm injuries
personalization of guns may prevent. However,
personalization technology could prevent the use
of stolen handguns, thus shrinking the illegal
gun market, and it could decrease access to
firearms by adolescents and protect young
children.
An Emerging Technology
In 1992, faculty at The Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health commissioned three undergraduate
engineering students to devise a personalized
gun. With an investment of $2,000, and use of
existing technology, the students converted a
revolver so that only its authorized user could
operate it. The gun's firing mechanism was
blocked unless it was touched by an electronic
"touch-memory" device. Only the handgun's
authorized user had possession of the device.
Today, the technology to make personalized guns
is far more sophisticated. In the near future,
personalized guns that identify the authorized
user by a PIN programmed into a gun may be
available for sale. This development would make
possible an early version of a personalized gun.
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Another future version of a personalized gun
could employ biometrics, such as fingerprint
recognition, for identification of the authorized
user. Computer chips already on the market for
use in other products immediately scan
fingerprints. Soon these chips will be made
durable enough to withstand the trauma of gunfire
and will be incorporated into guns. A
personalized holster already on the market keeps
a gun locked in its holster unless a device reads
the fingerprint of an authorized user.
Potential Advantages and Drawbacks of
Personalized Guns
Personalization has the potential to make guns
less accessible to young people and therefore
holds promise for reducing firearm injury and
death. Personalized guns are not a panacea,
however. The increased cost of the guns, the
immense stock of nonpersonalized guns in this
country, and the potential for an increase in gun
sales once personalized guns enter the market
make uncertain the precise impact of smart guns
on the safety of children and youth.
Personalized firearms would cost more than
firearms sold today, although how much more is
unknown. A national poll on gun ownership and
safety found that 80% of people who would buy a
personalized gun would buy one even if the
personalization device added $100 to $300 to the
price. Even so, it is unlikely that all, or even
a significant proportion, of the nearly 200
million existing firearms in the United States
would be retrofitted for personalization. The
majority of these older weapons would remain
available for use and purchase. Also unknown is
how many people who do not currently own firearms
would purchase personalized guns because they
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would seem safer than other guns. Would the rate
of concealed- weapon carrying increase? How many
mothers would buy a handgun for self-protection
if the handgun were "childproof"?
Although firearms would remain hazardous for
children even with personalization, safer gun
design could contribute to the broader strategy
to prevent firearm injuries among children and
adolescents. At the very least, young children
could be protected from adult inattention to safe
firearm storage. In a more complex set of
circumstances, adolescents would have decreased
access to operable firearms.
Adolescents, proscribed by law from owning
firearms, nevertheless have four types of access
to guns: (1) unauthorized access to firearms in
homes; (2) authorized access to firearms
transferred from My, fiends, and acquaintances;
(3) illegal purchase of firearms off the street
or through retailers, either directly or through
an intermediary; and (4) theft. The hope for
personalization technology is that the firearm
operating system would be individualized to the
gun owner so that the illegal transfer of
weapons, the utilization of stolen weapons, and
other unauthorized weapon use could not occur or
would occur only with great effort.
Personalization could decrease the pool of
readily usable firearms.
Thus, for an adolescent, operating a firearm and
obtaining an operable firearm would be more
difficult and complicated. For adolescents, who
frequently behave impulsively [], the time it
would take to find a usable firearm or to make a
firearm usable might result in a change of mind
and a loss of interest. Personalization could
thereby work to prevent many homicides, suicides,
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and unintentional injuries among children and
adolescents. (Stephen P. Teret, J.D., M.P.H.;
Patti L. Culross, M.D., M.P.H., The Future of
Children, Vol. 12, No. 2, Children, Youth, and
Gun Violence. (Summer - Autumn, 2002), pp.
118-131.)
3. Legislative Efforts Around Owner-Authorized Handguns
Bills promoting owner-authorized handguns in some fashion
have been introduced in several states<1> as well as in
Congress.<2> In 2002, New Jersey passed the first state to
require owner-authorized handguns, as soon as the
technology becomes available. On December 23, 2002, the
Associated Press reported:
New Jersey on Monday became the first state to
enact "smart gun" legislation that would
eventually require new handguns to contain a
mechanism that allows only their owners to fire
them.
The law will not go into effect immediately
--------------------
<1> New York Assembly Bill 4878, introduced 1997; New
Jersey Senate Bill 113, Assembly Bill 780, introduced 1998;
Pennsylvania House Bill 1376, introduced 1999; Tennessee
House Bill 0954, Senate Bill 0469, introduced 1999; Hawaii
House Bill 41, introduced 2001; Los Angeles motion to
require that handguns sold in the city incorporate safety
features to prevent unauthorized or accidental firing by
criminals, minors, and others, introduced 1999.
<2> Children's Gun Violence Prevention Act of 1999, 106th
Congress, 1st Session (March 25, 1999), H.R. 1342 and S.
735; Childproof Handgun Act of 1999, 106th Congress, 1st
Session (January 28, 1999), S. 319; Childproof Handgun Act
of 1999, 106th Congress, 1st Session (June 7, 1999), H.R.
2025; Concurrent Resolution Expressing the Sense of
Congress in Support of the Development and Use of Firearms
Personalization Technology, 106th Congress, 1st Session
(June 7, 1999), H. Con. Res. 125.
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because the technology is still under development
and it could be years before it becomes a
reality. But supporters hailed it as an
important milestone in the campaign to reduce
handgun deaths.
"This is common-sense legislation. There are
safety regulations on cars, on toys. It's
clearly time we have safety regulations on
handguns," Gov. James E. McGreevey said at
Monday's bill signing ceremony.
(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,73763,00.html
.)
4. Is This A Sole-Source Technology?
The race appears to be on to develop this new technology.
One group actively researching this technology is the New
Jersey Institute of Technology:
Since 1999, NJIT has spearheaded efforts to
develop a personalized handgun that can instantly
and reliably recognize one or more pre-programmed
authorized users. To date, the New Jersey
legislature has awarded NJIT $1.5 million for the
project.
In 2003, [Michael] Recce [PhD] received a patent
for Dynamic Grip Recognition. The invention
enabled NJIT electrical engineering professor
Timothy Chang, PhD, assisted by a team of
engineers, to embed multiple small electronic
sensors in the grip. The sensors identify the
user. The finished gun will eventually feature
both electronic features and computerized parts.
Recce sees his invention someday also being used
in other applications-perhaps the yoke of a plane
or a car's steering wheel.
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Also in 2003, NJIT signed an agreement with Metal
Storm, which owns a patent for its Electronic
Firing System that can be used in a handgun.
Metal Storm's O'DwyerTM VLe system is a unique,
patented approach to firing projectiles.
Entirely electronic, the system utilizes
preloaded barrels holding multiple projectiles
that are fired by electronic ignition. For the
first time, interchangeable and multiple barrels
can be made available to fire a range of
projectiles of varying calibers from the same
handgun. (Spotlight: Smart Gun Technology Works,
New Jersey Institute of Technology Newsroom,
January 2005.)
The NJIT researchers approach involves "Dynamic Grip
Recognition," essentially, sensors in the guns handle are
programmed to recognize the user's grip.
The gun relies on Dynamic Grip Recognition, a
biometric technology embedded in its handle.
Sensors and microprocessors analyze the complex
interplay of bones and muscles involved in
pulling the trigger, all in a fraction of a
second. "The way you hold a gun, curl your
fingers, contract your hand muscles as you pull
the trigger-all of those measurements are
unique," says Donald Sebastian, vice president
for research and development at NJIT. (A Smart
Shooter?, Popsci.com, 12/20/2005,
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-12/smar
t-shooter)
However, the New Jersey researchers are not the only ones
seeking to develop some type of owner authorized handgun.
Background submitted by the author suggests that a
different approach is being pursued by the Austrian
NANOIDENT Group:
Biometric recognition technology is used in many
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applications to verify a person's identity, in
order to prevent unauthorized access to
restricted places and sensitive data. Properly
applied, such technology can provide a highly
reliable form of authentication, which could be
used to ensure that only authorized persons are
able to use a handgun.
The realm of biometric sensors and related
technology is about to experience a revolution.
A very small number of companies are starting
production of electronics using specialized
printing techniques. For electronics, it
represents a major departure from the old method
of building up layers on silicon "chips," a
method that could eventually become obsolete.
Using organic polymer "inks" that are very
specialized, the technique allows circuits to be
printed on thin, flexible materials. Moreover,
these optoelectronic circuits can now contain
their own light sources, their own sensor arrays,
and even their own displays. NANOIDENT Group,
headquartered in Austria, is the market leader in
this technology, merging the latest breakthroughs
in materials science and nanotechnology.
The combined set of these technical strides
represents a giant leap for biometric access
control, particularly well suited to smart guns.
The biometric systems will be far less costly
than silicon chips. They will be disposable,
bendable, very light, ultra-thin and can be
fashioned into any conceivable shape. In
addition, they will be faster and more accurate
at the core task of biometric sensing.
In the proposed solution the sensor is a printed
matrix sensor making direct contact with the palm
skin surface. The emitted light from the
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sensor-integrated light source illuminates and
penetrates the tissue of the user palm. The
reflected light from the skin surface, subdermal
tissue and vein structures is then captured by
the sensor array.
Thanks to the cost structure resulting from the
printing technology, the size, the location, the
form factor and the shape (possibly curved) of
the sensor can be defined to optimize the
performance (false acceptances and false
rejections) of the smart gun biometric access
control system. This makes the integration of
the sensor into the smart gun handgrip easier
while ensuring a reliable authentication.
The combined analysis of skin surface, vein
structure and sub-dermal properties also enables
detection of any gummy fake biometrics that
unauthorized users might use to fool the
biometric system. The smart gun access control
is thus more secure and reliable.
The production capacity for such printed sensors
is immediately available. Because of the
necessary development work to integrate these
solutions into smart gun applications, their mass
production is planned to start by the first half
of 2011, while the first prototypes demonstrating
the solution are expected as early as the second
half of 2009. (White Paper. New Sensor
Technologies Enable Reliable and Secure Biometric
Access Control for Smart Guns. NANOIDENT, April
01, 2008.)
This bill describes a series of characteristics that
"owner-authorized" handguns would be required to contain,
if such technology becomes available. It appears that
different researchers are attempting to create a weapon
that would only allow a recognized user to fire it but
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through significantly different technologies. It appears
that the requirements of the "owner authorized handgun"
that would potentially be mandated by this bill could be
met by more than one technological method and therefore by
more than one supplier. Depending on the timing of when
these technologies become viable, however, there could be a
period of time when only one patented technology meets the
requirements of what constitutes a safe handgun under the
definition contained in this bill. In that case, the law
could require handgun buyers to buy the product of one
company. Because it is not clear that the technology has
been developed to reliably meet the specifications of this
bill, this question appears to be speculative at this
point.
5. Constitutional Considerations
The Second Amendment of the Constitution states, "A well
regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed." (United States Const. Amend. 2.)
For years, courts and commentators have interpreted that
language to mean that the right secured by the Second
Amendment relates to firearm ownership only in the context
of a "well regulated militia." This is known as the
"collective rights" interpretation. In the landmark case
of District of Columbia v. Heller, the United States
Supreme Court rejected the "collective rights" view of the
Second Amendment, and, instead, endorsed the "individual
rights" interpretation, that the Second Amendment protects
the right of each citizen to firearm ownership. After
adopting this reading of the Second Amendment, the Supreme
Court held that federal law may not prevent citizens from
owning a handgun in their home. (District of Columbia v.
Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 683-684.) Two years later, in
McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Supreme Court extended
this ruling to apply to laws passed by the 50 states.
(McDonald v. City of Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010).)
One question this bill poses is whether requiring firearms
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owners to buy only handguns that meet the specifications
contained in this bill violates the right to home defense,
as recognized in Heller. After deciding that the Second
Amendment protects an individual right to firearm
ownership, the Court applied that to the law in question:
We turn finally to the law at issue here. As we
have said, the law totally bans handgun
possession in the home. It also requires that
any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or
bound by a trigger lock at all times, rendering
it inoperable.
As the quotations earlier in this opinion
demonstrate, the inherent right of self-defense
has been central to the Second Amendment right.
The handgun ban amounts to a prohibition of an
entire class of "arms" that is overwhelmingly
chosen by American society for that lawful
purpose. The prohibition extends, moreover, to
the home, where the need for defense of self,
family, and property is most acute. Under any of
the standards of scrutiny that we have applied to
enumerated constitutional rights, banning from
the home "the most preferred firearm in the
nation to 'keep' and use for protection of one's
home and family," would fail constitutional
muster. (District of Columbia v. Heller, 554
U.S. 570, 628-629 (2008) (citations and footnotes
omitted).)
The law that the Supreme Court struck down in Heller
required the firearms owner to render the firearm
inoperable while they were at home. This bill would
require, among other things, that if the user is not
recognized, or if the power supply fails, the firearm shall
be inoperable. Members may wish to consider whether
requiring all handguns sold in California to become
inoperable if the handgun's power supply fails is
consistent with the ruling in Heller.
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SB 293 (DeSaulnier)
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6. Argument in Support
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence states in part:
The concept of an owner authorized handgun has
been under discussion for over fifteen years. In
2002, New Jersey passed a law similar to SB 293.
A number of technological solutions have been
explored, but none had been sufficiently
reliable. However, there have been recent
advances in access control technologies and
features for handguns and prototypes are becoming
available. This technology has the potential to
achieve very high authorized user recognition
reliability and very short response times.
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Once owner-authorized handguns are commercially
available, accidental firearm injuries,
homicides, and suicides could be significantly
reduced. Personalized handguns would be
inoperable by unauthorized users - including
children, troubled young adults, and thieves -
thereby helping to prevent intentional and
unintentional gun violence in California.
The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary
School demonstrates the potential benefits of
owner-authorized weapons. The shooter used his
mother's guns - had they been equipped with
owner-authorized technology, the mass shooting
may have been averted. It is paramount that
young people be prevented from inappropriate
access to firearms. Every day in the U.S., eight
children and teenagers are killed by a firearm;
suicide is the fourth leading cause of death of
young people. An owner-authorized handgun could
not be fired by a child or teen; hence, curious
small children could not accidentally shoot
themselves or others, despondent teens could not
shoot themselves, and troubled young people could
not commit rampage school shootings with guns
taken from home.
Moreover, owner-authorized handguns provide a
means to reduce gun trafficking since illegally
obtained guns would not be operable. Stolen
handguns that are personalized could not be
fired. Similarly, handguns acquired through
straw purchasers or gun traffickers could not be
used. These illegally obtained handguns are the
weapons that fuel the gun violence in our urban
streets.
7. Argument in Opposition
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SB 293 (DeSaulnier)
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Safari Club International states:
Many hunters use handguns for hunting. By mandating
"user authorized" handgun technology, SB 293 would
make it impossible for a hunter who does not wish to
purchase "user authorized" technology to buy a handgun
without it.
There are many situations in the field where hunting
takes place, or the shooting range where marksmanship
practice takes place, when a hunter may wish for
someone else to use or to evaluate their handgun. The
handgun may be in need of repair or service by a
gunsmith. It would be impossible for a handgun owner
to foresee all of these situations and to
pre-authorize selected other persons to be able to
discharge his or her firearm.
The bill provides no testing standards or procedures
for manufacturers and the Attorney General to follow
in determining whether a given "user authorized"
design is in compliance. How would the Attorney
General or a manufacturer know how to proceed in
making such a determination?
Furthermore, consumers who do not want to buy "user
authorized" features should not be mandated to
purchase them. It should be a matter of individual
choice whether to buy a handgun employing this
technology, if it is ever developed.
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