BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1999
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 12, 2016
Consultant: Matt Dean
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr., Chair
AB
1999 (Achadjian) - As Amended March 15, 2016
SUMMARY: Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to both
complete an initial review of a match in the Armed Prohibited
Persons System (APPS) within seven days of the match being
placed in the queue, and periodically reassess whether the
department can complete reviews of APPS matches more
efficiently. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires DOJ to complete an initial review of a match in the
daily queue of APPS within seven days of the match being
placed in the queue.
2)Requires DOJ to periodically reassess whether the department
can complete reviews of APPS matches within the daily queue
more efficiently.
3)Defines the "Armed Prohibited Persons System" (APPS) as "an
online database with the purpose of cross-referencing persons
who have ownership or possession of a firearm as indicated by
the Consolidated Firearms Information System and who,
subsequent to the date of that ownership or possession of a
firearm, fall within a class of persons who are prohibited
from owning or possessing a firearm."
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4)Defines "match" as "an entry into the Automated Criminal
History System, or into any department automated information
system, of the name and other information of an individual who
may be prohibited from acquiring, owning, or possessing a
firearm, matched with a corresponding record of ownership or
possession of a firearm by that individual, as specified."
EXISTING LAW:
1)Provides for an automated system for tracking firearms and
assault weapon owners who might fall into a prohibited status.
The online database, which is currently known as the APPS,
cross-references all handgun and assault weapon owners across
the state against criminal history records to determine
persons who have been, or will become, prohibited from
possessing a firearm subsequent to the legal acquisition or
registration of a firearm or assault weapon. (Pen. Code, §
30000, et seq.)
2)Prohibits persons who know or have reasonable cause to believe
that the recipient is prohibited from having firearms and
ammunition to supply or provide the same with firearms or
ammunition. (Pen. Code, §§ 27500 and 30306; and Welf. & Inst.
Code, § 8101.)
3)Provides that various categories of persons are prohibited
from owning or possessing a firearm, including persons
convicted of certain violent offenses, and persons who have
been adjudicated as having a mental disorder, among others.
(Pen. Code, §§ 29800 to 29825, inclusive, 29900, 29905, 30305;
and Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 8100 and 8103.)
4)Establishes the Dealer's Record of Sale (DROS) Account, a
special fund, which receives various firearm registration
fees, and which may be used by the DOJ for firearms related
regulatory activities, including enforcement activities
related to possession. (Pen. Code, §§ 28225 and 28235.)
5)Establishes the Firearms Safety and Enforcement Special Fund
(FSESF), a continuously appropriated fund, for use by the DOJ
for specified purposes related to weapons and firearms
regulation. Monies in the fund may be used for the following
purposes:
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a) Implementing and enforcing the provisions of the Firearm
Safety Certificate program;
b) Implementing and enforcing various gun law enforcement
programs; and,
c) Establishment, maintenance, and upgrading of equipment
and services necessary for firearms dealers to comply with
the DROS system. (Pen. Code, §28300.)
6)Requires the DOJ, 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 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. (Pen. Code, §§ 28200 to
28250.)
7)Mandates those dealers notify DOJ that persons in applications
actually took possession of their firearms. (Pen. Code, §
28255.)
8)Requires if a dealer cannot legally deliver a firearm to
return the firearm to the transferor, seller, or person
loaning the firearm. (Pen. Code, § 28050, subd. (d).)
9)Requires that in connection with any sale, loan or transfer of
a firearm, a licensed dealer must provide the DOJ with
specified personal information about the seller and purchaser
as well as the name and address of the dealer. This personal
information of buyer and seller required to be provided
includes the name; address; phone number; date of birth; place
of birth; occupation; eye color; hair color; height; weight;
race; sex; citizenship status; and a driver's license number;
California identification card number; or, military
identification number. A copy of the DROS, containing the
buyer and seller's personal information, must be provided to
the buyer or seller upon request. (Pen. Code, §§ 28160,
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28210, and 28215.)
10)Appropriates $24,000,000 from the DROS Special Account to DOJ
to address the backlog in APPS and the illegal possession of
firearms by individuals in APPS. (Pen. Code, § 30015.)
11)Requires DOJ to report, until March 1, 2019, on the following
APPS statistics:
a) The degree to which the backlog in APPS has been reduced
or eliminated;
b) The number of agents hired for enforcement of APPS;
c) The number of people cleared from APPS;
d) The number of people added to APPS;
e) The number of people in APPS before and after the
relevant reporting period, including a breakdown of why
each person in APPS is prohibited from possessing a
firearm;
f) The number of firearms recovered due to enforcement of
APPS;
g) The number of contacts made during the APPS enforcement
efforts; and
h) Information regarding task forces or collaboration with
local law enforcement on reducing the APPS backlog. (Pen.
Code, § 30015, subds. (b) and (c).)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: According to the author, "AB 1999
fulfills the recommendations of the State Auditor in requiring
the Department of Justice to review an initial match in the
Armed Prohibited Persons daily queue within 7 days and
periodically reassess whether the Department can complete
AB 1999
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those reviews more efficiently.
"This bill ensures the Department of Justice manages its
priorities and reviews potentially armed prohibited persons
accurately and promptly."
2)Prohibited Persons: California has several laws that prohibit
certain persons from purchasing firearms. All felony
convictions lead to a lifetime prohibition, while specified
misdemeanors will result in a 10-year prohibition. A person
may be prohibited due to a protective order or as a condition
of probation. Another prohibition is based on the mental
health of the individual. If a person communicates to his or
her psychotherapist a serious threat of physical violence
against a reasonably-identifiable victim or victims, the
person is prohibited from owning or purchasing a firearm for
five years, starting from the date the psychotherapist reports
to local law enforcement the identity of the person making the
threat. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 8100, subd. (b)(1).) If a
person is admitted into a facility because that person is a
danger to himself, herself, or to others, the person is
prohibited from owning or purchasing a firearm for five years.
(Welf. & Inst. Code, § 8103, subd. (f).) For the provisions
prohibiting a person from owning or possessing a firearm based
on a serious threat of violence or based on admittance into a
facility as a threat to self or others, the person has the
right to request a hearing whereby the person could restore
his or her right to own or possess a firearm if a court
determines that the person is likely to use firearms or other
deadly weapons in a safe and lawful manner. (Welf. & Inst.
Code, §§ 8100, subd. (b)(1) and 8103, subd. (f).)
DOJ developed APPS for tracking handgun and assault weapon
owners in California who may pose a threat to public safety.
(Pen. Code, § 30000 et seq.) APPS collects information about
persons who have been, or will become, prohibited from
possessing a firearm subsequent to the legal acquisition or
registration of a firearm or assault weapon. DOJ receives
automatic notifications from state and federal criminal
history systems to determine if there is a match in the APPS
for a current California gun owner. DOJ also receives
information from courts, local law enforcement and state
hospitals as well as public and private mental hospitals to
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determine whether someone is in a prohibited status. When a
match is found, DOJ has the authority to investigate the
person's status and confiscate any firearms or weapons in the
person's possession. Local law enforcement also may request
from DOJ the status of an individual, or may request a list of
prohibited persons within their jurisdiction, and conduct an
investigation of those persons. (Pen. Code, § 30010.) Since
the development of APPS, California has added long-gun
transactions to the list of registered firearms and has added
restraining orders to the list of prohibiting events. (<
http://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/publications/sb-14
0-supp-budget-report.pdf >) These additional requirements
have contributed to a backlog in processing APPS matches.
3)Backlog of Match Review in APPS: DOJ has two queues through
which it processes matches between any potentially prohibited
person and any registered firearm owner or applicant.
Although steady progress has been made to reduce the backlog
in APPS's two queues, currently there is an average backlog of
3,600 matches of potentially prohibited persons to firearm
owners in the daily queue of APPS and a backlog of
approximately 257,000 potentially prohibited person matches in
the historical queue. The historical queue includes all
matched prohibited persons not in the daily queue, which
includes all potentially prohibited persons whose reviews were
pending before DOJ implemented APPS in 2006. The daily queue
receives information daily from courts and mental health
providers regarding individuals who should be prohibited from
owning a firearm, as specified, and automatically creates
matches of anyone who is currently a firearm owner or who has
applied to own a firearm. (<
https://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/factsheets/2015-504.pdf >)
To avoid instances of incorrect identification, DOJ conducts a
manual review of any person who has been automatically matched
in APPS. This avoids denying access or ownership of firearms
to improperly matched individuals, i.e. makes sure that no one
is mistakenly prohibited from owning or purchasing a firearm
due to any clerical error or other incorrect identifier. This
manual review is the initial review referred to in this bill.
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This bill would require this initial review to be completed by
DOJ seven days after the automated match is generated in APPS,
as recommended by the State Auditor after DOJ received an
appropriation for this purpose.
In 2013, the Legislature appropriated $24 million to DOJ to help
clear the APPS backlogs. However, DOJ assigned APPS unit
staff to handle firearm background checks, which have a
statutory maximum time period during which background checks
must be completed. APPS, on the other hand, has no such
statutory deadline. In order to further reduce the backlog,
the State Auditor has recommended DOJ be mandated to complete
the aforementioned initial review of prohibited person matches
in APPS daily queue within seven days. This bill would
mandate the State Auditor's recommendation.
4)Related Legislation: SB 1332 (Mendoza), would require the
Department of Justice to modify its registration form so that
both spouses or both domestic partners may register as the
owners of the firearm and would require the department to
maintain both names on the firearm's registry. This bill
passed as amended from the Senate Committee on Public Safety
and was re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations on
April 5, 2016.
5)Prior Legislation:
a) SB 580 (Jackson), of the 2013-2014 Legislative Session,
would have would appropriated the sum of $5,000,000 from
the FSESF to the DOJ to contract with local law enforcement
agencies to reduce the backlog of individuals who are
identified by APPS as illegally possessing firearms. This
bill died in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
b) SB 140 (Leno), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2013, appropriated
$24 million from the DROS Special Account to the DOJ for
costs associated with regulatory and enforcement of illegal
possession of firearms by prohibited persons.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
AB 1999
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None
Opposition
None
Analysis Prepared
by: Matt Dean / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744