BILL NUMBER: SB 15 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 25, 1999
INTRODUCED BY Senator Polanco
DECEMBER 7, 1998
An act to add Chapter 1.3 (commencing with Section 12125) to Title
2 of Part 4 of the Penal Code, relating to firearms.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 15, as amended, Polanco. Firearms.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor or felony to manufacture or
cause to be manufactured, import into the state, keep for sale, offer
or expose for sale, give, lend, or possess specified weapons, but
not including an unsafe handgun.
This bill, commencing January 1, 2001, would make it a misdemeanor
to manufacture or cause to be manufactured, import into the state
for sale, keep for sale, offer or expose for sale, give, or lend any
unsafe handgun, except as specified. By creating new crimes, this
bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill additionally would require every person licensed to
manufacture firearms pursuant to federal law who manufactures
firearms in this state and every person who imports into the state
for sale, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale any firearm
to certify under penalty of perjury that every model, kind, class,
style, or type of pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being
concealed upon the person that he or she manufactures or imports,
keeps, or exposes for sale is not a prohibited unsafe handgun. By
expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
The bill also would require any pistol, revolver, or other firearm
capable of being concealed upon the person manufactured in this
state, imported into the state for sale, kept for sale, or offered or
exposed for sale, to be tested by an independent laboratory
certified by the Department of Justice to determine whether that
pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon
the person meets or exceeds specified standards defining unsafe
handguns. The bill would require the Department of Justice to
certify laboratories for this purpose on or before July 1, 2000.
The bill also would require the Department of Justice, on and
after January 1, 2001, to compile, publish, and thereafter maintain a
roster listing all of the pistols, revolvers, and other firearms
capable of being concealed upon the person that are not unsafe
handguns by the manufacturer, model number, and model name. The bill
would authorize the department to charge every person in this state
who is licensed as a manufacturer of firearms pursuant to federal
law, and any person in this state who manufactures or causes to be
manufactured, imports into the state for sale, keeps for sale, or
offers or exposes for sale any pistol, revolver, or other firearm
capable of being concealed upon the person in this state, an annual
fee not exceeding the costs of preparing, publishing, and maintaining
the roster.
This bill would make the above provisions inapplicable to
specified transactions involving the sale, loan, or transfer of any
firearm and to a single-action revolver with specified features.
The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the
Department of Justice pursue an internal loan from special fund
revenues available to the department to cover startup costs for the
unsafe handgun program established pursuant to the bill. The bill
would require the department to repay any loan with the proceeds of
fees collected under that program within 6 months.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 1.3 (commencing with Section 12125) is added to
Title 2 of Part 4 of the Penal Code, to read:
CHAPTER 1.3. UNSAFE HANDGUNS
12125. (a) Commencing January 1, 2001, any person in this state
who manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state
for sale, keeps for sale, offers or exposes for sale, gives, or
lends any unsafe handgun shall be punished by imprisonment in a
county jail not exceeding one year.
(b) This section shall not apply to any of the following:
(1) The manufacture in this state, or importation into this state,
of any prototype pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being
concealed upon the person when the manufacture or importation is for
the sole purpose of allowing an independent laboratory certified by
the Department of Justice pursuant to Section 12130 to conduct an
independent test to determine whether that pistol, revolver, or other
firearm capable of being concealed upon the person is prohibited by
this chapter, and, if not, for the department to add the firearm to
the roster of pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being
concealed upon the person that may be sold in this state pursuant to
Section 12131.
(2) The importation or lending of a pistol, revolver, or other
firearm capable of being concealed upon the person by employees or
authorized agents determining whether the weapon is prohibited by
this section.
(3) The sale to, purchase by, or possession of, any pistol,
revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person
by the Department of Justice, police departments, sheriffs'
officials, marshals' offices, the Department of Corrections, the
California Highway Patrol, district attorneys' offices, full-time
paid peace officers of other states and the federal government, the
federal military forces, the California National Guard, or the State
Military Reserve, excluding the unorganized militia, when that weapon
would be prevented by this chapter from being sold in this state
solely because it fails to meet minimum frame and barrel size
prerequisites established by this chapter. Nothing in this chapter
shall prohibit the possession or use of any pistol, revolver, or
other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person that would
be prevented by this chapter from being sold in this state solely
because it fails to meet minimum frame size prerequisites by sworn
members of these agencies when on duty and the use is within the
scope of their duties.
(4) Firearms listed as curios or relics, as defined in Section
178.11 of Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(c) Violations of subdivision (a) are cumulative with respect to
each handgun and shall not be construed as restricting the
application of any other law. However, an act or omission punishable
in different ways by this section and other provisions of law shall
not be punished under more than one provision, but the penalty to be
imposed shall be determined as set forth in Section 654.
12126. As used in this chapter, "unsafe handgun" means any
pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon
the person, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 12001, for which
any of the following is true:
(a) For a revolver:
(1) It has an overall frame length of less than four and one-half
inches measured on a line parallel to the barrel.
(2) It has a barrel length less than three inches.
(3) It does not have a safety device that, either automatically
in the case of a double-action firing mechanism, or by manual
operation in the case of a single-action firing mechanism, causes the
hammer to retract to a point where the firing pin does not rest upon
the primer of the cartridge.
(4) It does not meet the firing requirement for handguns pursuant
to Section 12127.
(5) It does not meet the drop safety requirement for handguns
pursuant to Section 12128.
(b) For a pistol:
(1) It does not have a positive manually operated safety device.
(2) It has a combined length and height less than 10 inches with
the height (right angle measurement to the barrel without magazine or
extension) less than four inches and the length less than six
inches.
(3) It does not meet the firing requirement for handguns pursuant
to Section 12127.
(4) It does not meet the drop safety requirement for handguns
pursuant to Section 12128.
12127. (a) As used in this chapter, the "firing requirement for
handguns" means a test in which the manufacturer provides three
handguns of the make and model for which certification is sought,
these handguns not being in any way modified from those that would be
sold if certification is granted, to an independent testing
laboratory certified by the Attorney General pursuant to Section
12130. The laboratory shall fire 600 rounds from each gun, stopping
after each series of 50 rounds has been fired for 5 to 10 minutes to
allow the weapon to cool, stopping after each series of 100 rounds
has been fired to tighten any loose screws and clean the gun in
accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, and stopping as
needed to refill the empty magazine or cylinder to capacity before
continuing. The ammunition used shall be of the type recommended by
the handgun manufacturer in the user manual, or if none is
recommended, any standard ammunition of the correct caliber in new
condition. A handgun shall pass this test if each of the three test
guns meets both of the following:
(1) Fires the first 20 rounds without a malfunction that is not
due to faulty magazine or ammunition.
(2) Fires the full 600 rounds with no more than six malfunctions
that are not due to faulty magazine or ammunition and without any
crack or breakage of an operating part of the handgun that increases
the risk of injury to the user.
(b) If a pistol or revolver fails the requirements of either
paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a) due to either a faulty
magazine or faulty ammunition, the pistol or revolver shall be
retested from the beginning of the "firing requirement for handguns"
test. A new model of the pistol or revolver that failed due to a
faulty magazine or ammunition may be submitted for the test to
replace the pistol or revolver that failed.
(c) As used in this section, "malfunction" means a failure to
properly feed, fire, or eject a round, or failure of a pistol to
accept or reject a manufacturer-approved magazine, or failure of a
pistol's slide to remain open after a manufacturer-approved magazine
has been expended.
12128. As used in this chapter, the "drop safety requirement for
handguns" means that at the conclusion of the firing requirements for
handguns described in Section 12127, the same certified independent
testing laboratory shall subject the same three handguns of the make
and model for which certification is sought, to the following test:
A primed case (no powder or projectile) shall be inserted into the
chamber. For pistols, the slide shall be released, allowing it to
move forward under the impetus of the recoil spring, and an empty
magazine shall be inserted. For both pistols and revolvers, the
weapon shall be placed in a drop fixture capable of dropping the
pistol from a drop height of 1m + 1cm (39.4 + 0.4 in.) onto the
largest side of a slab of solid concrete having minimum dimensions
7.5 X 15 X 15 cm (3 X 6 X 6 in). The drop distance shall be measured
from the lowermost portion of the weapon to the top surface of the
slab. The weapon shall be dropped from a fixture and not from the
hand. The weapon shall be dropped in the condition that it would be
in if it were dropped from a hand (cocked with no manual safety
applied). If the design of a pistol is such that upon leaving the
hand a "safety" is automatically applied by the pistol, this feature
shall not be defeated. An approved drop fixture is a short piece of
string with the weapon attached at one end and the other end held in
an air vise until the drop is initiated.
The following six drops shall be performed:
(a) Normal firing position with barrel horizontal.
(b) Upside down with barrel horizontal.
(c) On grip with barrel vertical.
(d) On muzzle with barrel vertical.
(e) On either side with barrel horizontal.
(f) If there is an exposed hammer or striker, on the rearmost
point of that device, otherwise on the rearmost point of the weapon.
The primer shall be examined for indentations after each drop. If
indentations are present, a fresh primed case shall be used for the
next drop.
The handgun shall pass this test if each of the three test guns
does not fire the primer.
12129. Every person who is licensed as a manufacturer of firearms
pursuant to Chapter 44 (commencing with Section 921) of Title 18 of
the United States Code who manufactures firearms in this state, and
every person who imports into the state for sale, keeps for sale, or
offers or exposes for sale any firearm, shall certify under penalty
of perjury and any other remedy provided by law that every model,
kind, class, style, or type of pistol, revolver, or other firearm
capable of being concealed upon the person that he or she
manufactures or imports, keeps, or exposes for sale is not an unsafe
handgun as prohibited by this chapter.
12130. (a) Any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of
being concealed upon the person manufactured in this state, imported
into the state for sale, kept for sale, or offered or exposed for
sale, shall be tested within a reasonable period of time by an
independent laboratory certified pursuant to subdivision (b) to
determine whether that pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of
being concealed upon the person meets or exceeds the standards
defined in Section 12126.
(b) On or before July 1, 2000, the Department of Justice shall
certify laboratories to verify compliance with the standards defined
in Section 12126. The department may charge any laboratory that is
seeking certification to test any pistol, revolver, or other firearm
capable of being concealed upon the person pursuant to this chapter a
fee not exceeding the costs of certification.
(c) The certified testing laboratory shall, at the manufacturer's
or importer's expense, test the firearm and submit a copy of the
final test report directly to the Department of Justice along with a
prototype of the weapon. The department shall notify the
manufacturer or importer of its receipt of the final test report and
the department's determination as to whether the firearm tested may
be sold in this state.
12131. (a) On and after January 1, 2001, the Department of
Justice shall compile, publish, and thereafter maintain a roster
listing all of the pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of
being concealed upon the person that have been tested by a certified
testing laboratory, have been determined not to be unsafe handguns,
and may be sold in this state pursuant to this title. The roster
shall list, for each firearm, the manufacturer, model number, and
model name.
(b) The department shall include on the roster any pistol,
revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person
listed as a curio or relic, as defined in Section 178.11 of Title 27
of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(c) (1) The department may charge every person in this state who
is licensed as a manufacturer of firearms pursuant to Chapter 44
(commencing with Section 921) of Title 18 of the United States Code,
and any person in this state who manufactures or causes to be
manufactured, imports into the state for sale, keeps for sale, or
offers or exposes for sale any pistol, revolver, or other firearm
capable of being concealed upon the person in this state, an annual
fee not exceeding the costs of preparing, publishing, and maintaining
the roster pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b).
(2) Any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being
concealed upon the person that is manufactured by a manufacturer who
manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state for
sale, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale any pistol,
revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person
in this state, and who fails to pay any fee required pursuant to
paragraph (1), may be excluded from the roster.
12132. This chapter shall not apply to any of the following:
(a) The transfer of any firearm pursuant to Section 12082 or 12084
in order to comply with subdivision (d) of Section 12072.
(b) The transfer of any firearm between immediate family members
that is exempt from the provisions of subdivision (d) of Section
12072 pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 12078.
(a) The sale, loan, or transfer of any firearm pursuant to Section
12082 or 12084 in order to comply with subdivision (d) of Section
12072.
(b) The sale, loan, or transfer of any firearm that is exempt from
the provisions of subdivision (d) of Section 12072 pursuant to any
applicable exemption contained in Section 12078, if the sale, loan,
or transfer complies with the requirements of that applicable
exemption to subdivision (d) of Section 12072.
(c) The sale, loan, or transfer of any firearm as described in
paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 12125.
12133. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to a
single-action revolver that has at least a five-cartridge capacity
with a barrel length of not less than three inches, and meets any of
the following specifications:
(a) Was originally manufactured prior to 1900 and is a curio or
relic, as defined in Section 178.11 of Title 27 of the Code of
Federal Regulations.
(b) Has an overall length measured parallel to the barrel of at
least seven and one-half inches when the handle, frame or receiver,
and barrel are assembled.
(c) Has an overall length measured parallel to the barrel of at
least seven and one-half inches when the handle, frame or receiver,
and barrel are assembled and that is currently approved for
importation into the United States pursuant to the provisions of
paragraph (3) of subsection (d) of Section 925 of Title 18 of the
United States Code.
SEC. 2. It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of
Justice pursue an internal loan from special fund revenues available
to the department to cover startup costs for the program established
pursuant to Section 1 of this act. Any loan shall be repaid with
the proceeds of fees collected under that program within six months.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the
only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district
will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction,
eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime
or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government
Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.
Notwithstanding Section 17580 of the Government Code, unless
otherwise specified, the provisions of this act shall become
operative on the same date that the act takes effect pursuant to the
California Constitution.