BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 15| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 445-6614 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 15 Author: Polanco (D) Amended: 8/16/99 Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 4-1, 4/6/99 AYES: Vasconcellos, Johnston, McPherson, Polanco NOES: Rainey NOT VOTING: Burton SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 SENATE FLOOR : 25-15, 5/10/99 AYES: Alarcon, Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Chesbro, Costa, Dunn, Escutia, Figueroa, Hayden, Hughes, Johnston, Karnette, McPherson, Murray, O'Connell, Ortiz, Peace, Perata, Polanco, Schiff, Sher, Solis, Speier, Vasconcellos NOES: Baca, Brulte, Haynes, Johannessen, Johnson, Kelley, Knight, Leslie, Lewis, Monteith, Morrow, Mountjoy, Poochigian, Rainey, Wright ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 44-27, 8/19/99 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Firearms SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill enacts restrictions on the manufacture, importation, or sale of "unsafe handguns" - as defined in this bill - in California commencing January 1, CONTINUED SB 15 Page 2 2001, as specified. Assembly Amendments : 1.Make changes to those who are exempt from the provision of the bill to include relics and curios. 2.Removes requirement that the State Department of Justice include concealable curios or relics on the roster. 3.Specifies the standard for "Unsafe firearm" to mean that which was established by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. 4.Includes costs of research and development, report analysis, firearms storage, and other program infrastructure costs for which the annual fee authorized by this bill may be imposed. 5.Changes the date for which the State Department of Justice must certify laboratories to verify compliance from 7/1/2000 to 10/1/2000. ANALYSIS : Under existing law, it is an alternate misdemeanor/felony ("wobbler") to manufacture, import, sell, loan or possess specified disguised firearms and other deadly weapons, including plastic firearms, cane or wallet guns, flechette darts, multiburst trigger activators, nunchakus, short-barreled shotguns and rifles, leaded canes, zip guns, unconventional pistols, cane blackjacks and metal knuckles. A violation is punishable by sixteen months, two or three years in prison, or up to one year in county jail. Existing law generally requires that any sale, loan, or transfer of a firearm shall be made through a licensed firearms dealer or, in counties of fewer than 200,000 persons, a sheriff's department that elects to provide such services. Existing law states it is the intention of the Legislature to occupy the whole field of regulation of the registration or licensing of commercially manufactured firearms as encompassed by the provisions of the Penal Code and such SB 15 Page 3 provisions shall be exclusive of all local regulations, relating to registration or licensing of commercially manufactured firearms, by any political subdivision, as defined. This bill does the following: 1. Commencing January 1, 2001, make it a misdemeanor -- punishable by up to one year in a county jail -- for any person 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. 2. Defines "unsafe handgun" to mean any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person who either (a) for revolvers: does not have a safety device to cause the hammer to retract from contact with the primer, as specified, (2) for pistols (whether semi-automatic or not): does not have a positive manually operated safety device, as determined by standards relating to imported guns promulgated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, (3) does not meet a specified firing requirement, or (4) does not meet a specified drop safety requirement. 3. Requires 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. 4. Requires 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 to exposed for sale, to be tested by an independent laboratory certified by the State Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine whether that firearm meets or exceeds specified standards defining SB 15 Page 4 unsafe handguns. 5. Requires DOJ certify laboratories for this purpose on or before October 1, 2000. 6. Requires DOJ, 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; authorizes DOJ 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, as well as costs of research and development, report analysis, firearms storage and other program infrastructure costs necessary to implement the provisions required by this bill. 7. Exempts from the limitations on such handguns (1) prototypes which are to be tested by a laboratory to determine whether the handgun is prohibited by this bill; (2) law enforcement and others handling the weapon to determine whether or not it is prohibited by this bill; (3) firearms which are curios or relics pursuant to federal regulations. 8. Exempts from the transfer limitations in this bill transfers between private parties through dealers/law enforcement agencies; transfers between parties otherwise exempt from the requirement that transfer be made through a dealer or law enforcement agency (limited duration loans between known parties, loans for hunting season, etc); transfers, deliveries, returns to or from an licensed dealer of weapons capable of being concealed under specified conditions; weapons listed as curios and relics, and transfers pertaining to those handguns exempted in new provisions added by this bill (such as delivery to DOJ of weapons SB 15 Page 5 being tested). 9. Exempts the sale to, purchase by, or possession of, any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person by DOJ. The sale to, purchase by, or possession of any pistol, revolver or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person by DOJ, any police department, any sheriff's official, any marshals' office, the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, the California Highway Patrol, any district attorneys' office, the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States for use in the discharge of their official duties. Nor shall anything in this bill prohibit the possession of any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person by sworn members of these agencies, whether the sworn member is on or off duty, or an individual who is retired from service with a law enforcement agency and who is not otherwise prohibited from possessing a concealable firearm upon his or her retirement. 10. States the intent of the Legislature that DOJ 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 and that the department is to repay any loan with the proceeds of fees collected under that program within six months. 11. Makes numerous related additions to law. This bill contains an exemption for "old west" single-action revolvers and replicas of those revolvers. This bill contains the following language: Penal Code section 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 SB 15 Page 6 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. Federal Regulation of "Saturday Night Specials" At the federal level, the importation of "Saturday Night Specials" into the United States has been banned through the enactment of the Gun Control Act of 1968. Section 925(d)(3) of the Act provides that a firearm shall be imported if it is of a type "?generally recognized as particularly suitable for, or readily adaptable to, sporting purposes." The phrase "sporting purposes" has been defined to eliminate small, cheap, poorly constructed handguns. A set of factoring criteria was designed to prevent the import of these handguns, considered a substantial crime problem in the 1960's. The factoring criteria are based on a relatively simple point system. First, the firearm must meet all of the prerequisites. If it is a pistol, it must have a manually operated safety device. The combined length and height must be not less than ten inches with the height being at least four inches and the length at least six inches. If the firearm is a revolver, it must pass the safety test and have an overall frame length of at least four and one half inches and a barrel length of at least three inches. In addition, a point value is assigned to the handgun's individual characteristics such as length of barrel, overall length, frame construction, weight, caliber, safety features, type of sight, trigger, hammer and grip. SB 15 Page 7 Generally, the handguns passing the criteria are bigger, heavier and of a better quality than "Saturday Night Specials." The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (Secretary of the Treasurer or his/her delegate) also may grant exemptions to these requirements, as specified. Under the proposed federal Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1989, the above criteria would have applied to handguns produced in the United States. However, this federal legislation was defeated. Related Legislation AB 505 (Wright) is currently in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety. It would require every model of pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person that is manufactured for sale in California on or after July 1, 2000, to satisfy specified safety tests and standards, with a system of self-certification by the manufacturer or importer and specified penalties. Prior Legislation SB 1500 (Polanco - 1997-98 Session): Senate Floor Vote: 23-15 (NOES: Brulte, Costa, Haynes, Hurtt, Johannessen, Johnson, Kelley, Knight, Leslie, Lewis, Maddy, Monteith, Mountjoy, Rainey, and Wright) Vetoed by the Governor. SB 500 (Polanco - 1997-98 Session): Senate Floor Vote: 22-15. Vetoed by the Governor. SB 933 (1996-96 Session). Failed passage in Assembly Public Safety Committee. Governor's Veto of SB 500 and SB 1500 The Governor's veto message of SB 500 (9/26/97) included, in part, the following: "SB 500 is a bill that purports to protect gun users against shoddy guns. It is essentially offered as consumer protection. But the vast majority of the proponents of SB 500 who have urged me to sign it have done so because of their passionate hope and belief SB 15 Page 8 that it will instead protect potential victims against whom the proscribed guns might otherwise be used. "Common sense dictates that the best way to prevent gun crimes is by first removing from society the criminals who use guns in the commission of a crime. . . " . . not only does SB 500 fail to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, it will deprive law-abiding, legitimate gun users of the needed protection of handguns--the same handguns used by thousands of peace officers as regular service and back-up guns. These weapons would--in a private citizen's hands--be caught in a net cast much too wide by SB 500. " . . I will not support a measure that fails the basic test of protecting the innocent. Ultimately, the real test applied by the bill is whether or not the weapon is readily concealable. If so, it is adjudged by SB 500 to be "non-sporting" and is therefore prohibited. By this definition and test, all handguns--except, ironically, the largest and deadliest--are included in the ban. The clear if unstated premise of this test is that handguns that are concealable can have no sporting purpose and therefore no valid purpose. This flawed logic ignores reality: it ignores the obvious fact that millions of law-abiding Californians--including a growing number of women--have felt the need to own concealable weapons not for sport but to protect themselves, their families, and their property. "As much as I deplore the necessity, I cannot in good conscience deny them that protection if they choose it." NOTE: The author indicated concerning SB 1500 from 1998 that: "In response to the Governor's concerns [with SB 500], . . . I have introduced Senate Bill 1500. It casts a smaller net, it addresses the Governor's concerns and it seeks to ensure that those who choose to own a handgun for self protection have a handgun that is safe and reliable." SB 15 Page 9 The Governor's veto message of SB 1500 (9/27/98) includes the following: " . . This bill is the successor to SB 500, which I vetoed last year. SB 500 was seriously flawed. Commendably, the author has removed some of its more egregious provisions. . . . " . . The bill gives the Department of Justice 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 Department of Justice roster. All other handguns would be presumed unsafe subject to penalty under this bill and remain so unless and until they were certified to 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 his 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 by this arbitrary 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 SB 15 Page 10 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 gun maker--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 which 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 clearly 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 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." FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes SUPPORT : (Verified 8/23/99) American Academy of Pediatrics American Jewish Congress, Jack Berman Advocacy Center Association of Bay Area Governments California Academy of Family Physicians SB 15 Page 11 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 California Police Chiefs' Association Children's Advocacy Institute City Administrator, City of Williams Cities of Alameda, Albany, Alhambra, Arvin, Belmont, Benicia, Berkeley, Buena Park, Camarillo, Cathedral City, Commerce, Cudahy, Cypress, Daly City, East Palo Alto, El Cerrito, Huntington Park, Indio, Inglewood, Irvine, Kerman, Lafayette, La Puente, Livingston, Lompoc, Los Angeles, Malibu, Merced, Millbrae, Monte Sereno, Monterey Park, Oakland, Oceanside, Ojai, Pacific Grove, Palm Springs, Palo Alto, Richmond, Riverside, Rohnert Park, San Bernardino, San Clemente, San Fernando, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, San Marino, San Mateo, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Monica, Santa Rosa, Sausalito, South El Monte, South Pasadena, Stockton, Temecula, Thousand Oaks, Upland, Walnut Creek, West Hollywood, Willows, Winters Counties of Alameda, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles Gray Panthers of Sacramento Handgun Control, Inc. Joe A. Gonsalves and Anthony D. Gonsalves Johan Klehs, Chair, State Board of Equalization League of California Cities League of Women Voters of California Legal Community Against Violence Los Angeles County Bar Association Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Los Angeles Unified School District Los Gatos Police Department Lutheran Office of Public Policy - California Mayor Albert, City of Monterey (formerly listed as City of Monterey) Mayor Arca, City of Guadalupe (formerly listed as City of Guadalupe) Mayor Eshlema, City of Fontana (formerly listed as City of Fontana) Mayor Flory, City of Fullerton (formerly listed as City of SB 15 Page 12 Fullerton) Mayor Garcia, City of La Habra (formerly listed as City of La Habra) Mayor Kennedy, City of Morgan Hill (formerly listed as City of Morgan Hill) Mayor Salazar, City of Montebello (formerly listed as City of Montebello) Mayor Wilder, City of Foster City (formerly listed as City of Foster City) Monte Sereno Police Department Office of Criminal Justice Planning Older Womens League of California Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence Oxnard Police Department Physicians for a Violence Free Society San Mateo Police Department Scotts Valley Police Department Signal Hill Police Department Silverlake Chamber of Commerce Sonora Police Department South Orange County Democratic Club Supervisor Erickson from Siskiyou County (formerly listed as Siskiyou County) Supervisor Kerns from Sonoma County (formerly listed as Sonoma County) The Trauma Foundation Town of Los Gatos Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles Women Against Gun Violence OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/23/99) Butte County Sheriff (formerly listed as support) California Attorneys for Criminal Justice California Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. California Shooting Sports Association California Sportsman's Lobby, Inc. City of Dunsmuir City of Fortuna (formerly listed as support) City of Lake Elsinore City of Temple City County of Colusa Glenn County Board of Supervisors Gun Owners of California Incorporated SB 15 Page 13 Lemoore California National Rifle Association of America Outdoor Sportsmen's Coalition of California Peace Officer Research Association of California Safari Club International San Bernardino Sheriff Towne of Apple Valley Tuolumne County Sheriff ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author submits that: "Senate Bill 15 is a common sense, responsible gun law. It requires that weapons fire when they are supposed to and that they not fire when dropped. The drop test is based on U.S. Department of Justice 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 weapons in our state." ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The National Rifle Association (NRA) letter in opposition includes: "As currently constructed, SB 15 would provide a strong stimulus for illegal 'street' gun sales. Most used handguns made since 1946 would not be submitted for certification as required by SB 15 and thus could not be legally sold by retail firearm dealers. Pawnshops would not give loans on handguns that they couldn't sell if not picked up by the owner. Without access to retail firearms dealers (including SB 15 Page 14 pawnshops) the obvious alternative is 'street sales'." The California Rifle and Pistol Association letter in opposition to SB 15 includes: ". . .Its prohibition on dealer sales of used handguns not meeting the bills extremely broad provisions would make handguns economically unavailable to many persons who do not have large incomes. . . .Whether a handgun meets the proposed SB 15 standards in most cases would have no relevance to its suitability for its intended purpose. . .SB 15 requires that both civilian and law enforcement handguns have the same standards. . .SB 15 would not significantly improve any product line nor would it prevent the occasional occurrence of a defective part. But, it would unjustly have an adverse impact on lawful residents of California who need a handgun for lawful purposes but cannot afford the expensive models. . ." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Alquist, Aroner, Calderon, Cardenas, Cedillo, Corbett, Correa, Cunneen, Davis, Dutra, Firebaugh, Floyd, Gallegos, Havice, Hertzberg, Honda, Jackson, Keeley, Knox, Kuehl, Lempert, Longville, Lowenthal, Machado, Mazzoni, Migden, Nakano, Papan, Reyes, Romero, Scott, Shelley, Soto, Steinberg, Strom-Martin, Thomson, Torlakson, Vincent, Washington, Wayne, Wesson, Wiggins, Wildman, Villaraigosa NOES: Ackerman, Ashburn, Baldwin, Bates, Battin, Baugh, Bock, Briggs, Cardoza, Cox, Dickerson, Ducheny, Florez, Frusetta, House, Leonard, Maldonado, Margett, McClintock, Olberg, Oller, Robert Pacheco, Pescetti, Runner, Strickland, Wright, Zettel NOT VOTING: Aanestad, Brewer, Campbell, Granlund, Kaloogian, Leach, Maddox, Rod Pacheco, Thompson RJG:cm 8/23/99 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** SB 15 Page 15