BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1407 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 1407 (De León) As Amended August 8, 2016 Majority vote SENATE VOTE: 24-14 ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Public Safety |5-2 |Jones-Sawyer, Lopez, |Melendez, Lackey | | | |Low, Quirk, Santiago | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Appropriations |14-5 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Gallagher, | | | |Bonilla, Bonta, |Jones, Obernolte, | | | |Calderon, Daly, |Wagner | | | |Eggman, Eduardo | | | | |Garcia, Holden, | | | | |Quirk, Santiago, | | | | |Weber, Wood, Chu | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY: Clarifies that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would SB 1407 Page 2 be required to maintain and make available information concerning the number of serial numbers or other marks of identification issued pursuant to manufactured or assembled firearms. EXISTING STATE LAW: 1)Prohibits a person, firm, or corporation licensed to manufacture firearms pursuant to Chapter 44 (commencing with Section 921) of Title 18 of the United States Code from manufacturing firearms in California, unless the person, firm, or corporation is also licensed under California law. This prohibition does not apply to a person licensed under federal law, who manufactures less than 100 firearms a calendar year. 2)Makes it illegal to change, alter, remove, or obliterate the name of the maker, model, manufacturer's number, or other mark of identification on any pistol, revolver, or any other firearm, without first having secured written permission from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make that change, alteration, or removal. 3)Allows DOJ, upon request, to assign a distinguishing number or mark of identification to any firearm whenever the firearm lacks a manufacturer's number or other mark of identification, or whenever the manufacturer's number or other mark of identification, or a distinguishing number or mark assigned by the department has been destroyed or obliterated. 4)Makes it misdemeanor, with limited enumerated exceptions, for any person to buy, receive, dispose of, sell, offer to sell, or have possession any pistol, revolver, or other firearm that has had the name of the maker or model, or the manufacturer's number or other mark of identification changed, altered, removed, or obliterated. SB 1407 Page 3 5)Requires a person be at least 18 years of age to purchase a rifle or shotgun. To purchase a handgun, a person must be at least 21 years of age. As part of the Dealer Record of Sales (DROS) process, the purchaser must present "clear evidence of identity and age" which is defined as a valid, non-expired California Driver's License or Identification Card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles. 6)Requires purchasers to present a handgun safety certificate prior to the submission of DROS information for a handgun or provide the dealer with proof of exemption pursuant to California Penal Code Section 31700. Beginning on January 1, 2015, this requirement was extended to all firearms. 7)Requires that firearms dealers obtain certain identifying information from firearms purchasers and forward that information, via electronic transfer to DOJ to perform a background check on the purchaser to determine whether he or she is prohibited from possessing a firearm. 8)Requires firearms to be centrally registered at the time of transfer or sale by way of transfer forms centrally compiled by the DOJ. DOJ is required to keep a registry from data sent to DOJ indicating who owns what firearm by make, model, and serial number and the date thereof. 9)Requires that, upon receipt of the purchaser's information, DOJ shall examine its records, as well as those records that it is authorized to request from the State Department of Mental Health, in order to determine if the purchaser is prohibited from purchasing a firearm because of a prior felony conviction or because they had previously purchased a handgun within the last 30 days, or because they had received inpatient treatment for a mental health disorder, as specified. SB 1407 Page 4 10)Allows DOJ to require the dealer to charge each firearm purchaser a fee not to exceed $14, except that the fee may be increased at a rate not to exceed any increase in the California Consumer Price Index as compiled and reported by the Department of Industrial Relations. This fee, known as the DROS fee, shall be no more than is necessary to fund specific codified costs. 11)Permits DOJ to charge a fee sufficient to reimburse it for each of the following but not to exceed $14, except that the fee may be increased at a rate not to exceed any increase in the California Consumer Price Index as compiled and reported by the Department of Industrial Relations: a) For the actual costs associated with the preparation, sale, processing, and filing of specified forms or reports required or utilized; b) For the actual processing costs associated with the submission of a Dealers' Record of Sale to the DOJ; c) For the actual costs associated with the electronic or telephonic transfer of information; and d) Any costs incurred by DOJ to implement this section shall be reimbursed from fees collected and charged pursuant to this section. 12)Requires that the Attorney General establish and maintain an online database to be known as the Prohibited Armed Persons File. The purpose of the file is to cross-reference persons who have ownership or possession of a firearm on or after January 1, 1991, as indicated by a record in the Consolidated SB 1407 Page 5 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. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, no cost to DOJ. COMMENTS: According to the author, "Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, it is illegal for an unlicensed person to make a firearm for sale or distribution. However, a loophole in the law allows for the construction of firearms by unlicensed individuals so long as the firearms are made for personal use and are not sold or transferred. "Unlike all other firearms, homemade guns have no record of existence. These homemade guns are assembled through the purchase of unfinished receivers, or 80% completed lower receivers. Unfinished receivers - the engine of a firearm - are not technically considered firearms because of their incomplete stage and thus do not require a serial number or background check for purchase. With an unfinished receiver, a firearm parts kit, and basic drilling machinery, an individual can assemble a fully functional firearm without being subject to the requirements placed on all other firearms transactions. "This loophole poses an increasingly daunting challenge for law enforcement. As reported in the Sac Bee (December 19, 2015) 'California black market surges for 'ghost guns,'" there is an emerging black market for these homemade guns, or ghost guns, because they allow criminals and other dangerous individuals to circumvent background checks and other California firearms laws, including the state's assault weapons ban. Because these firearms are assembled privately and do not produce a sales record, no one knows they exist until a crime is committed. SB 1407 Page 6 Federal and state officials have seized hundreds of these weapons in a series of ongoing undercover operations. "Another telling example is the June 2013 shooting in Santa Monica by John Zawahri, who killed five people using a gun assembled at home. Although Zawahri was denied a firearms purchase by the Department of Justice because of mental illness concerns, he was able to skirt the law by purchasing a lower receiver online, which he modified to craft the AR-15 style rifle that was used in the shooting. Similarly, just last year, ghost guns were used in a murder-suicide in Walnut Creek. "The development of technologies that make the manufacture of weapons accessible to the general public raises questions about whether homemade guns are being made by gang members, felons, and other prohibited individuals. Without specific measures that address the dangers posed by these self-made guns, criminals will exploit the technologies at the expense of public safety - as is proving to be the case throughout the state." Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion of this bill. Analysis Prepared by: Gabriel Caswell / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0003948 SB 1407 Page 7