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
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|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 | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Clarifies that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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