BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 567 (Jackson) - Firearms: shotguns.
Amended: May 1, 2013 Policy Vote: Public Safety 5-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 6, 2013 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 567 would:
Amend the definition of "shotgun" to delete language
stating that to be considered a shotgun, the weapon must be
"intended to be fired from the shoulder," and add language
to state that a shotgun may include a weapon with a rifled
bore as well as a smooth bore.
Require that any person who from January 1, 2001, to
December 31, 2013, lawfully possessed a shotgun with a
revolving cylinder, as defined, register the firearm via
online submission before July 1, 2014, with the Department
of Justice (DOJ), as specified.
Authorize the DOJ to charge a fee of up to $20 per person
but not to exceed the reasonable processing costs for this
registration.
Fiscal Impact:
As currently drafted, costs to the DOJ are indeterminable,
as the required system changes could not be completed until
January 1, 2015, six months after the registration deadline.
Assuming the registration date is extended one year,
one-time costs of about $1 million (Special Fund*) to the
DOJ to redesign the existing Assault Weapon Registration
(AWR) system with a new web user interface to enable online
registration of the specified firearms.**
Online registration processing costs of $0.5 million
(Special Fund*) over six months to be fully offset by fees
collected from registrants. Any additional workload to
process registrations after the initial batch is completed
is estimated to be minor.
Unknown, potential increase in annual state incarceration
costs (General Fund). For every 25 new felony convictions,
costs in the range of $0.7 million to $1.5 million,
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compounding to $2.8 million to $6 million for overlapping
sentences assuming the middle term of the triads for
violations of both manufacturing and possession.
Increased annual local incarceration costs (Local) for
possession of assault weapons without proper registration.
Potential near-term loss of sales tax revenue (General
Fund) to the extent shotgun sales in California are impacted
by the provisions of this measure. Future year impact would
be somewhat mitigated to the extent consumers shift to
purchases of alternative firearms.
*Dealer Record of Sale (DROS) Special Account
**AWR redesign costs are also included in SB 47 (Yee). In the
event both SB 47 and this measure are enacted, the DOJ would
only incur this cost once.
Background: The enactment of the assault weapons ban in
California is described by the federal Court of Appeal from
Silveira v. Lockyer, 312 F.3d 1052 (9th Cir. 2002), in part, as
follows: In response to a proliferation of shootings involving
semi-automatic weapons, the California Legislature passed the
Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act ("the AWCA") in 1989.
The immediate cause of the AWCA's enactment was a random
shooting earlier that year at the Cleveland Elementary School in
Stockton, California. An individual armed with an AK-47
semi-automatic weapon opened fire on the schoolyard, where three
hundred pupils were enjoying their morning recess. Five children
aged 6 to 9 were killed, and one teacher and 29 children were
wounded.
The codified legislative findings and declarations of the AWCA
state, in part, "that the proliferation and use of assault
weapons poses a threat to the health, safety, and security of
all citizens of this state. The Legislature has restricted the
assault weapons specified in Section 30510 based upon finding
that each firearm has such a high rate of fire and capacity for
firepower that its function as a legitimate sports or
recreational firearm is substantially outweighed by the danger
that it can be used to kill and injure human beings. It is the
intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to place
restrictions on the use of assault weapons and to establish a
registration and permit procedure for their lawful sale and
possession."
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This bill seeks to address the definition of an assault weapon
as it pertains to the current definition of a "shotgun".
Existing law defines a "shotgun" as a weapon designed or
redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the
shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use
the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire
through a smooth bore either a number of projectiles (ball shot)
or a single projectile for each pull of the trigger.
Under existing law, the following shotguns are defined as
assault weapons:
A semiautomatic shotgun that has both of the following,
1) a folding or telescoping stock, and, 2) a pistol grip
that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the
weapon, thumbhole stock, or vertical handgrip.
A semiautomatic shotgun that has the ability to accept a
detachable magazine.
Any shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
Smooth bored shotguns with revolving cylinders are classified as
assault weapons under current law. More recently designed
shotguns are being sold with rifled bores. To the extent these
firearms with rifled bores come equipped with a revolving
cylinder, these firearms would not be classified as assault
weapons under current law. Because the current definition of a
shotgun is integrated into the definition of an assault weapon,
these rifled bore shotguns are not technically defined as
shotguns, and therefore, do not fall under the current
definition of an assault weapon. This bill seeks to update the
definition of a shotgun to address this issue.
Proposed Law: See Bill Summary.
Related Legislation: This measure is part of the following
legislative package deemed the Lifesaving Intelligent Firearms
Enforcement (LIFE) Act:
SB 47 (Yee) 2013 would revise the definition of assault weapon
to include a firearm that has one of several specified features
and does not have a "fixed magazine" as defined. This bill would
require the registration of specified lawfully possessed assault
weapons that do not have a fixed magazine, as defined, with the
DOJ. This bill is scheduled to be heard today by this committee.
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SB 53 (DeLeon) 2013 would require the sale, purchase, and
transfer of ammunition to be subject to additional regulations,
as specified. This bill would 1) require ammunition purchasers
to obtain an ammunition purchase permit and complete a
background check prior to any transaction, and, 2) require DOJ
to maintain records of all ammunition vendor licenses and
purchase permits issued, as well as all ammunition sales. This
bill is scheduled to be heard today by this committee.
SB 140 (Leno) 2013 Chapter 2/2013, an urgency measure,
appropriates $24 million from the DROS Special Account to the
DOJ to address the backlog of unlawfully held firearms in the
Armed Prohibited Persons System (APPS). This bill was signed by
the Governor on May 1, 2013.
SB 374 (Steinberg) 2013 would 1) redefine the definition of what
rifles would be considered assault weapons, 2) provide a
definition for both "fixed magazine" and "detachable magazine,"
3) require the registration of specified lawfully possessed
assault weapons with the DOJ, and, 4) enact provisions
establishing a Firearm Ownership Record, as specified. This bill
is scheduled to be heard today by this committee.
SB 396 (Hancock) 2013 would ban the possession of large-capacity
ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, and
would require the disposal of any large-capacity magazine, as
defined, in specified ways. This bill is scheduled to be heard
today by this committee.
SB 683 (Block) 2013 would expand the current safety certificate
requirement on handguns to all firearms. This bill is scheduled
to be heard today by this committee.
SB 755 (Wolk) 2013 expands the list of misdemeanors that result
in a 10-year prohibition from firearms possession to include
drug and alcohol-related offenses. This bill is scheduled to be
heard today by this committee.
Staff Comments: The DOJ has indicated one-time costs of about $1
million (Special Fund*) for the DOJ to redesign the existing
Assault Weapon Registration (AWR) system with a new web user
interface to enable online registration of the specified
firearms, to be fully offset by fees. The existing AWR
application is over 13 years old, and due to its inflexibility
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and lack of technical support, the DOJ has indicated it cannot
be modified for the new business requirements. The new
application would be public facing for applicants to complete
the personal and firearm information along with the required fee
payable upon registration. Online registration processing costs
are projected at $0.5 million (Special Fund*) over six months to
be fully offset by fees collected from registrants. Any
additional workload to process registrations after the initial
group of registrants is completed is estimated to be absorbable.
Under existing law, unlawful possession of an assault weapon is
an alternate felony-misdemeanor punishable as a felony by
imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, two or three years
(or in state prison with a serious or violent prior felony), or
as a misdemeanor by imprisonment in a county jail for up to one
year. Current law also provides that any person who within the
state imports, manufactures, offers for sale, or who gives or
lends any assault weapon, is guilty of a felony punishable by
imprisonment in state prison for four, six, or eight years. By
narrowing the scope of firearms that are legal in the state,
this bill expands the scope of the aforementioned crimes.
Arrest information from the DOJ indicates an increasing number
of violations of possession of an assault weapon since 2010,
with 825 arrests in 2012. Arrest data for felony violations for
the import, sale, manufacture, or loan of an assault weapon
reflect a decreasing trend, with 124 arrests in 2012. According
to the CDCR, 58 individuals in 2011 and 22 individuals in 2012
were committed to state prison specific to these crimes.
It is unknown how many persons will be convicted under the
expanded scope of these crimes, though it is assumed the
convictions will likely be highest in the near-term. For every
25 individuals (assuming convictions for both manufacturing/sale
and possession with a prior serious/violent felony), increased
state incarceration costs could range from $0.7 million to $1.5
million (General Fund) per year, compounding to $2.8 million to
$6 million due to overlapping sentences (assuming the middle
terms of the 4, 6, 8 year triad for manufacturing and 16 month,
2, 3 year triad for possession with a prior), based on the range
of potential costs to accommodate extended state prison
sentences. To the extent the number of individuals impacted is
greater/less or the average sentence imposed is longer/shorter
than estimated, annual costs would be impacted accordingly.
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California's prison system continues to operate under federal
oversight as it addresses the issues of prison overcrowding and
constitutionally adequate health care in its 33 facilities. On
April 11, 2013, the three-judge panel denied the state's motion
to vacate/modify the inmate population cap and ordered the state
to provide a list of proposed population reduction measures
within 21 days of the order (May 2, 2013). To the extent this
measure exacerbates prison overcrowding due to lengthier prison
terms, this bill creates future cost pressure (General Fund) to
potentially utilize additional contract beds, out-of-state
facilities, or capital outlay in order to comply with the
court-ordered population limit.
To the extent the provisions of this bill have the effect of
reducing the number of shotguns currently sold in the state,
there would be an impact to both local and state sales tax
revenues. For every $100 million in annual shotgun purchases, to
the extent the provisions of this bill result in a 10 percent
reduction in annual sales, state sales tax revenues are
estimated to drop by about $400,000 (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 and/or newly
developed firearm models that become available.
To the extent the provisions of this bill serve to reduce the
incidence of firearms-related injuries and death, potential
future cost savings could be substantial. 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: The DOJ has indicated the AWR system
redesign will be a one-year project that cannot be implemented
until January 1, 2015. In order to accommodate the time
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necessary for development of the system, an amendment is
recommended to delay the date by which individuals must register
the assault weapons from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015.