BILL ANALYSIS
SB 15
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 8,1999
Counsel: Gregory Pagan
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Mike Honda, Chair
SB 15 (Polanco) - As Amended: June 2, 1999
SUMMARY : Makes it a misdemeanor for any person in California to
manufacture, import for sale, offer for sale, give, or lend any
"unsafe handgun", as defined, with certain specific exceptions.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in the
county jail, beginning January 1, 2001 for any person in
California who manufactures or causes to be manufactured,
imports into California for sale, keeps for sale, offers or
exposes for sale, gives or lends any unsafe handgun, except as
specified.
2)Defines "unsafe handgun" to mean any pistol, revolver or
firearm capable of being concealed upon a person that does not
have a specified safety device, does not meet specified firing
requirements, or does not meet specified drop safety
requirements.
3)Requires any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of
being concealed upon a person manufactured in California,
imported into California for sale, kept for sale, or offered
or exposed for sale to be tested by an independent laboratory
certified by the Department of Justice (DOJ) meets or exceeds
specified standards defining unsafe handguns.
4)Requires the DOJ to certify laboratories to verify compliance
with the specified standards defining unsafe handguns on or
before July 1, 2,000.
5)Requires every person licensed to manufacture firearms who
manufactures firearms in California, and every person who
imports firearms into California 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, type
of pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being
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concealed upon a person that he or she manufactures or
imports, keeps or exposes for sale is not a prohibited unsafe
handgun.
6)Requires the DOJ on and after January 1, 2001 to compile
publish, and thereafter maintain, a roster listing all
pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being
concealed upon a person that are not unsafe handguns by the
manufacturer, model number and model name.
7)Authorizes the DOJ to charge every person who manufactures,
imports into California for sale, offers or exposes for sale
any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being
concealed upon a person an annual fee not exceeding the costs
of preparing, publishing, and maintaining the roster.
8)Exempts from limitations: (a) prototypes which are to be
tested by an independent laboratory to determine if the
handgun is prohibited by this bill; (b) the handling of a
handgun by persons authorized to determine if the weapon is
prohibited; (c) firearms listed as curios or relics by federal
law; and, (d) the sale, purchase, or possession of any handgun
by specified law enforcement agencies or sworn members of
these agencies when the sworn member has written authorization
from the employing agency.
9)Exempts the sale loan or transfer of any firearm between
private parties through dealers or law enforcement agencies,
between private parties exempt from the requirement that the
transfer be through a dealer or law enforcement agency,
firearms listed as curios or relics, the delivery or return of
a firearm for the purposes of repair, and the return of a
firearm by a licensed dealer when the firearm was delivered
for the purposes of a consignment sale or as collateral for a
pawnbroker loan.
10)States that it is the Legislature's intent that the DOJ
pursue an internal loan from special fund revenues available
to the DOJ to cover start-up costs for the program established
pursuant to this bill, and any loan shall be repaid with the
proceeds of fees collected under that program within six
months.
11)States that nothing in this bill shall require or prohibit
any local ordinance that places a more stringent requirement
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upon the manufacture, importation, transfer, sale, or
possession of handguns.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Provides for licensing and regulation of all firearm dealers
and manufacturers in California. (Penal Code Sections 12071
and 12085.)
2)States that it is an alternate felony/misdemeanor punishable
by 16 months, 2 or 3 years in the state prison or by up to one
year in the county jail to manufacture, cause to be
manufactured, import into California, keep for sale, offer or
expose for sale, give, lend or possess specified prohibited
firearms. (Penal Code Section 12020 (a).)
3)Provides that perjury is willfully stating under oath a
material fact that one knows to be false, either orally or in
writing, and is punishable by two, three, or four years in the
state prison. (Penal Code Sections 118 and 126.)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement . According to the author, "SB 15 is a
common sense responsible gun law. It requires that weapons
fire when they are supposed to and that they not fire when
they're dropped. The drop test is based on the United States
DOJ quality standards for law enforcement weapons and the
misfire test is a slightly more lenient standard than
currently used by law enforcement agencies. The tests are
fair and reasonable for weapons sold to members of the public
for self-protection. If a weapon is not reliable for
self-defense, it has no business being sold in California.
"SB 15 would require any handgun manufactured in California,
imported into the State of California for sale, kept for sale
or exposed for sale, given or lent, meet these basic
standards. The Attorney General's Office would be required to
certify independent labs that would test weapons that
manufacturers wished to sell in California. If they failed to
pass the test it would be a misdemeanor to manufacture or sell
the weapon in our state."
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2)Definition of "Unsafe Handgun" . This bill defines an "unsafe
handgun" as follows: (a) does not have a requisite safety
device, (b) does not meet specified firing tests, and (c) does
not meet a specified drop safety test.
a) Required Safety Device . This bill requires that a
revolver 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 or in
the case of a pistol have a positive manually operated
safety device.
b) Firing Test . In order to meet the "firing requirements"
under this bill, the manufacturer must submit three
unaltered handguns, of the make and model for which
certification is sought, to an independent laboratory
certified by the Attorney General. The laboratory shall
fire 600 rounds from each gun under certain conditions. A
handgun shall pass the test if each of the three test guns
fires the first 20 rounds without a malfunction, and fires
the full 600 rounds without more than 6 malfunctions and
without any crack or breakage of an operating part of the
handgun that increases the risk of injury to the user.
"Malfunction" is defined as a failure to properly feed,
fire or eject a round; 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.
c) Drop Test . This bill provides that at the conclusion of
the firing test, the same three manufacturer's handguns
must undergo and pass a "drop safety requirement" test.
The three handguns are dropped a specified number of times,
in specified ways, with a primed case (no powder or
projectile) inserted into the handgun, and the primer is
examined for indentations after each drop. The handgun
passes the test if each of the three test guns does not
fire the primer.
3)Exemptions . The misdemeanor penalties specified in this bill
do not apply to a handgun imported as a prototype for the
purpose of laboratory testing; where it is imported or loaned
to determine whether the weapon is prohibited; if it is listed
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as a curio or relic under federal law; or where the sale to,
purchase by, or possession of any handgun by specified law
enforcement agencies, or sworn members of these agencies when
the sworn member is has written authorization from the
employing agency. Also, this bill does not apply to the
private sale, loan, or transfer between private parties
through a licensed dealer, or law enforcement agency; an
infrequent transfer, as defined; the delivery or return of a
handgun for the purpose of service or repair; the return of a
handgun that was delivered to a licensed dealer or pawnbroker
for the purposes of consignment sale or as collateral for a
loan; or for "old west" single-action revolvers and replicas
of those revolvers.
4)Laboratory Certification . This bill provides that on or
before July 1, 2000, the DOJ shall certify laboratories to
verify compliance with the standards established by this bill,
and the DOJ may charge a fee for certification not exceeding
the costs of certification.
This bill allows the DOJ to charge every person who is a
manufacturer of firearms in California, imports firearms into
California for the purpose of sale, or offers for sale a
pistol, revolver, or handgun capable of being concealed upon a
person in California, an annual fee not exceeding the costs of
preparing and maintaining the roster of firearms deemed not to
be unsafe.
This bill also provides that the certified testing laboratory
shall, at the expense of the manufacturer or importer, test
the submitted firearm.
5)Prior Legislation . SB 1500 (Polanco), of the 1997-98
Legislative Session, was almost identical to this bill. SB
1500 was vetoed by the Governor. The Governor stated in part:
"The bill gives the DOJ six months to find and certify
laboratories to perform safety tests. Once laboratories are
identified, handgun manufacturers wishing to sell their
products in California would be required to submit three
prototypes of each model for testing. Only handguns passing
the test during the following six months would be certified
and placed on the initial DOJ roster. All other handguns
would be presumed to be unsafe subject to penalty under this
bill and remain so unless and until they were certified to
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have passed the test.
"The author was advised that this Administration could accept
both the premise of safety testing and the specific safety
tests proposed, provided that the bill be made prospective,
impacting handguns manufactured or sold new, after January 1,
2000. The author declined to amend the bill, insisting that
used handguns could be sold through private transactions, but
not by licensed dealers. Other than improving business for
gun manufacturers by increasing demand for new guns, it is
unclear how anyone would benefit from this new standard.
"SB 1500 would deny owners of used handguns access to a
dependable marketplace of licensed firearms dealers and
pawnbrokers for safe and legal sales and loans, while
threatening to delay market access to manufacturers and
purchasers of new guns.
"But an even more fundamental question is whether consumer
safety is better achieved by a program that offers
manufacturers market incentives to have their products tested,
or a program that penalizes not only makers of products that
fail the test, but also those who through no fault of theirs
have been unable to get their guns tested.
"There are few laboratories that perform this kind of testing
now. With the manufacturers providing the cost of testing,
the number of laboratories and testing capacity may increase.
But in the meantime, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of
makes and models of handguns. There is a very real
possibility that delay - for any number of reasons beyond the
control of gunmakers - will lead to a large number of guns
being banned without any showing that they are unsafe.
"While there have been isolated reports of firearms that jam
excessively and even a few reports of guns which discharge
accidentally, when dropped, or explode in the shooter's hand,
the number of makes of suspect guns does not seem to justify a
regulatory scheme that is likely to have the unintended
consequence of prohibiting, or at least unreasonably holding
up, sales of what appears to be the vast majority of perfectly
reliable weapons.
"And there is no objection to weapons testing. But the
procedure which SB 1500 would impose threatens to unreasonably
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limit the right of law abiding citizens to obtain previously
lawful firearms. It makes little sense for the law to deny
weapons to people who need them, on the pretext that they are
unsafe to the user until testing proves them safe, when they
are arguably in far greater danger from certifiably unsafe
thugs than from uncertified handguns."
6)Pending Legislation . AB 505 (Wright), pending assignment by
the Senate Rules Committee, provides that every pistol,
revolver, or firearm capable of being concealed upon a person,
effective July 1, 2000, manufactured in California or imported
into California for sale meet specified minimum safety
standards. AB 505 has a prospective application and only
applies to firearms manufactured or imported into California
after the effective date of the bill.
7)Arguments in Support . Handgun Control states, "There are no
federal quality or safety standards for domestically
manufactured handguns. Guns are the only product in America
exempt from regulation by the Consumer Product Safety
Commission or by any other agency. The gun lobby has
repeatedly pressured Congress to continue to exempt
domestically made handguns from the safety standards that have
applied to imported handguns for more than 30 years."
8)Arguments in Opposition . The California Sporting Goods
Association states, "Requiring out-of-production firearms to
meet abstract performance tests will place an onerous burden
on anyone trying to buy or sell one. If the product is no
longer made, how can samples be provided for testing?
Further, if owners of discontinued models can no longer sell
them lawfully, there will be a great temptation to dispose of
them on the illicit market."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Academy of Pediatrics
Association of Bay Area Governments
Board of Supervisors of Alameda County
Board of Supervisors of Marin County
Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County
Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County
Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz County
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Board of Supervisors of Siskiyou County
Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County
Butte County Sheriff
California Academy of Family Physicians
California Child Youth and Family Coalition
California Church Impact
California Congress of Parents, Teachers, and Students, Inc.
California Nurses Association
California Organization of Police and Sheriffs
Cathedral City
Children's Advocacy Institute
City of Alameda
City of Albany
City of Alhambra
City of Arvin
City of Belmont
City of Benicia
City of Berkeley
City of Bishop
City of Buena Park
City of Burbank
City of Camarillo
City of City of Cudahy
City of Commerce
City of Cypress
City of Daly City
City of El Cerrito
City of Fontana
City of Fortuna
City of Foster City
City of Fullerton
City of Guadalupe
City of Huntington Park
City of Indio
City of Inglewood
City of Irvine
City of Kerman
City of La Habra
City of La Puente
City of Lake Elsinore
City of Los Angeles
City of Malibu
City of Millbrae
City of Monte Sereno
City of Montebello
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City of Monterey
City of Monterey Park
City of Morgan Hill
City of Oakland
City of Oceanside
City of Ojai
City of Oxnard
City of Pacific Grove
City of Palm Springs
City of Palmdale
City of Palo Alto
City of Richmond
City of Riverside
City of Rohnert Park
City of San Bernadino
City of San Clemente
City of San Fernando
City of San Jose
City of San Luis Obisbo
City of San Marino
City of San Mateo
City of Santa Ana
City of Santa Barbara
City of Santa Clara
City of Santa Monica
City of Santa Rosa
City of Signal Hills
City of South Pasadena
City of Stockton
City of Temecula
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Upland
City of Walnut Creek
City of West Hollywood
City of Williams
City of Winters
Colusa County District Attorney
Episcopal Church Diocese of Los Angeles
Escalon Police Department
Handgun Control
Jack Berman Advocacy Center
Lafayette City Council
League of California Cities
League of Women Voters of California
Legal Community Against Violence
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Livingston California
Los Angeles County Bar Association
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Los Angeles Unified School District
Lutheran Office of Public Policy
Michael J. Long, Attorney at Law
Office of Criminal Justice Planning
Older Women's League of California
Orange County Citizens for Prevention of Gun Violence
Physicians For a Violence-Free Society
San Mateo Police Department
Scotts Valley Police Department
Signal Hill Police Department
Sonora Police Department
Town of Los Gatos
Trauma Foundation
Violence Prevention Coalition of Los Angeles
Opposition
California Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc.
California Sporting Goods Association
3 Private Citizens
Analysis Prepared by : Gregory Pagan / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744