BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1695 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 6, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 1695 (Bonta) - As Introduced January 21, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Public Safety |Vote:|5 - 2 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill: AB 1695 Page 2 1)Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to send a notice during the 10-day waiting period to every person who applies to purchase a gun informing him or her of gun laws relating to gun transfers and storage, as specified. And requires the notice to include a website for DOJ's summary of gun laws and requires DOJ to update the summary annually. 2)Makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly submit a false report to a local law enforcement agency that a firearm has been lost or stolen, and institutes a 10-year ban on owning a firearm for those convicted of making a false report. For these purposes, AB 1695 includes the frame or receiver of the weapon, a rocket, rocket propelled projectile launcher, or similar devise in the definition of a firearm. FISCAL EFFECT: Significant ongoing cost to DOJ in the range of $420,000 to $520,000 (Firearms Safety and Enforcement Special Fund - a continuously appropriated fund) to program, process and provide upwards of 730,000 notices per year, and maintain and update gun laws website. All costs will be recovered with the existing fee authority. Moderate nonreimbursable local costs for incarceration, offset to a degree by fee revenue. COMMENTS: 1)Background. Current law requires all handgun purchasers in California to take an exam on handgun safety and obtain a 75% passing score to receive a certificate, and requires the completion of the California Dealer's Record of Sale (DROS) AB 1695 Page 3 form and a background check. DOJ is required, upon submission of firearm purchaser information, to examine its records to determine if the purchaser is prohibited from possessing, receiving, owning, or purchasing a firearm. Existing law also prohibits the delivery of a firearm within 10 days of the application to purchase, or, after notice by the department, within 10 days of the submission to the department of any corrections to the application to purchase, or within 10 days of the submission to the department of a specified fee. Current law also provides a life-time or 10-year ban on owning a gun for anyone convicted of specific crimes and provides specific penalties for those violations. 2)Purpose. According to the author, AB 1695 seeks to reduce the flow of firearms onto the black market. The bill targets straw purchases, where a person who can pass a background check legally buys a gun and then resells it to someone who was prohibited from purchasing a firearm. Additionally, this bill makes knowingly falsely reporting a gun as lost or stolen a misdemeanor, a tactic of straw purchasers seeking to distance themselves from the gun. 3)Support. According to the California Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "In 2007, Greg Ridgeway conducted a study to determine whether sending a notification to gun buyers during the ten day waiting period could affect behavior. The notification or letter informed them that law enforcement had a record of their gun purchase and that the gun buyer should properly record any future transfers of the gun. Those receiving the letter reported their guns lost or stolen with almost twice the frequency of those who did not receive the letter, and at least initially, those receiving the letter were less likely to return to pick up their gun. Ridgeway concluded that straw purchasers were much more likely to report their firearms lost or stolen as a defense when guns recovered in a crime were traced to them. It follows therefore, that the act of knowingly filing a false report should have criminal consequences in order to discourage the AB 1695 Page 4 behavior." 5)Opposition. According to the Firearms Policy Coalition, "The senseless redundancy of AB 1695 is many-fold. Many laws cited in the notice content are, in fact, the same laws that the purchaser is complying with by conducting a lawful firearm transfer to a licensed dealer. Those same laws are required to be posted in plain view at the point of sale. And how many times must a purchaser pay for the same notice with the same content to be mailed to them? With the Department of Justice processing nearly one million firearm transactions in California on an annual basis, AB 1695 represents the needless waste of forests of paper, pallets of printer toner, and tons of disposed DOJ junk mail every year. AB 1695 also creates a new misdemeanor crime for falsifying a report of a lost or stolen firearm, then makes that crime one which subjects the violator to a 10-year total prohibition on firearm possession." 6)Prior Legislation: a) AB 1020 (Bonta), of the 2013-2014 legislative session, required the DOJ to send a letter during the 10-day waiting period to each individual who has applied to purchase a firearm informing him or her of firearms laws relating to gun trafficking and safe storage. AB 1020 was held in this Committee's Suspense file. b) SB 819 (Leno), Chapter 743, Statutes of 2011, provides that DOJ may use dealer record of sale funds for costs associated with its firearms-related regulatory and enforcement activities regarding the possession as well as the sale, purchase, loan, or transfer of firearms, as specified. AB 1695 Page 5 Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes / APPR. / (916) 319-2081