BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 363
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Date of Hearing: July 3, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 363 (Wright) - As Amended: June 11, 2013
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote:6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill expands criminal storage of a gun to include keeping a
loaded gun within any premises where a person prohibited from
possessing a gun is likely to gain access and actually accesses
and causes death or injury. (Current law applies only to
situations in which a child gains access and uses the gun to
kill or injure someone.) Specifically, this bill:
1)Applies the existing penalties for criminal storage of a gun
that involves a child to prohibited persons. The offense is a
felony, punishable by 16 months, two, or three years in county
jail, and/or by a fine of up to $10,000 if the prohibited
person causes death or great bodily injury. The offense is a
misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in county jail and
or a fine of up to $1,000 if the prohibited person causes
injury other than great bodily injury, or carries the gun to a
public place and/or draws or exhibits the gun, as specified.
2)Authorizes, beginning January 1, 2015, the annual fee charged
by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the handgun safety
testing program, as specified, to be paid January 1.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Minor state and local correctional costs to the extent anyone
is charged with this offense. No one has been committed to
state prison under the existing statute in recent years.
2)Potential, likely minor, non-reimbursable local enforcement
costs, offset to a degree by fine revenue.
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3)No net impact on fee revenues (Dealer Record of Sales Account)
which are currently in the range of $265,000.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author contends existing safe storage
requirements that apply to children should also apply to
persons prohibited from possessing guns.
2)Support . According to the California Police Chiefs
Association, "This bill would expand the provisions of
California's safe storage law to include the circumstance of
when the person who keeps the firearm knows or reasonably
should know that a person prohibited from owning or possessing
a firearm or deadly weapon is likely to gain access to the
firearm."
3)Opposition . According to the, California Association of
Federal Firearms Licensees, "SB 363 utterly destroys the
rights of thousands of law-abiding people without a criminal
record by expressly prohibiting them from keeping firearms for
self-defense when they cohabit or share housing with a
prohibited person - even if that prohibited person was not
convicted of a violent crime, and no matter if the firearm is
kept secure or not."
4)Related Legislation .
a) AB 500 (Ammiano), pending in Senate Public Safety,
prohibits a person who is residing with someone prohibited
by state or federal law from possessing a gun from keeping
a gun at that residence unless the gun is kept within a
locked container, locked gun safe, locked trunk, locked
with a locking device, disabled by a gun safety device, or
carried on the person. A violation of this provision is a
misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in county jail
and/or a fine of up to $1,000.
b) SB 108 (Yee), pending in Assembly Public Safety, would
require gun owners to keep guns locked up or disabled with
a firearm safety device, as specified, when they are not at
home.
c) AB 231 (Ting), pending in Senate Appropriations, creates
third-degree criminal gun storage if the person
negligently stores or leaves a loaded gun in a location
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where a child is likely to gain access to the gun, unless
reasonable action is taken by the person to secure the gun
against access by a child.
SB 363 is compatible with these bills.
5)Proposed amendments .
a) This bill amends Penal Code Section 25100, which
addresses storage of loaded guns that are used by a child
to injure a person. Section 25200 addresses storage of
loaded or unloaded guns that are carried off premises
and/or to a school. As the author's intent is to expand gun
storage requirements that apply to children to persons
prohibited from possessing a gun, Section 25200 should be
amended as well.
b) DOJ and the author propose to amend the bill to add
federal law enforcement agencies to the law enforcement
agencies that are allowed purchase guns that are not on
DOJ's list of safe handguns. Penal Code section 32000(b)(4)
permits only sworn members of the following agencies to
purchase off-roster guns: "Department of Justice, any
police department, any sheriff's official, any marshal's
office, the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, the
California Highway Patrol, any district attorney's office,
or the military or naval forces of this state or of the
United States for use in the discharge of their official
duties." This amendment would add federal law enforcement
agencies to this exemption.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081