BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 130|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 130
Author: Hayden (D), et al
Amended: 5/12/99
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 4/6/99
AYES: Vasconcellos, Johnston, McPherson, Polanco, Rainey
NOT VOTING: Burton
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 9-3, 5/17/99
AYES: Johnston, Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Escutia, Karnette,
McPherson, Perata, Vasconcellos
NOES: Kelley, Leslie, Mountjoy
NOT VOTING: Johnson
SUBJECT : Firearms: safety devices
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires that after January 1, 2002,
all firearms sold, transferred, or manufactured in this
state be accompanied by both an approved firearms safety
device and "warning" materials. This bill requires that
the Attorney General/Department of Justice set standards
for such devices and certify laboratories to verify
compliance of such devices with the standards, and to set
timelines for the implementation of this bill. This bill
requires all law enforcement agencies, effective January 1,
2000, to report to State Department of Health Services
about incidents involving unintentional or self-inflicted
firearms wounds to minors. This bill enacts legislative
CONTINUED
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finding about firearms injuries to children and makes
related changes.
ANALYSIS : 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 requires licensed dealers to follow specified
procedures for such transactions, including that the dealer
initiate a background check, obtain a basic firearms safety
certificate for handgun transactions, and offer to provide
the purchaser or transferee a copy of the State Department
of Justice (DOJ) pamphlet on firearms laws. Violations
generally subject the dealer to forfeiture of the dealer's
license or a misdemeanor penalty (some felony penalties
apply for specified violations).
Existing law requires that the basic firearms safety
certificate required for all handgun sales and transfers
does involve a course or test which addresses issues of
"safe use, handling, and storage" and childproofing methods
for handguns.
Existing law provides criminal penalties for the criminal
storage of a firearm in the first and second degrees, where
a minor sixteen years of age or younger obtains access to a
firearm, and requires licensed dealers to post warnings
about those penalties.
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
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 enacts the Aroner-Scott-Hayden Firearms Safety
Act of 1999 and does the following:
1. Enacts legislative findings about the number of
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unintentional shootings of minors.
2. Provides that effective January 1, 2002, all firearms
sold or transferred in California, by a licensed
firearms dealer, including private transfers through a
dealer, and all firearms manufactured in this state
shall include or be accompanied by a firearms safety
device approved by the Attorney General (AG).
The sale or transfer of a firearm shall be exempt if
both of the following apply:
A. The purchaser or transferee owns a gun safe that
meets the standards set forth in Section 12088.2.
Gun safes shall not be required to be tested, and
therefore may meet the standards without appearing
on the DOJ roster.
B. The purchaser or transferee presents an original
receipt for purchase of the gun safe, or other proof
of purchase and ownership of the gun safe as
authorized by the AG, to the firearms dealer. The
dealer shall maintain a copy of this receipt or
proof of purchase with the dealers' record of sales
of firearms.
C. The sale or transfer of a firearm shall be
exempt from subdivision (a) if the following apply:
(1) The purchaser or transferee purchases an
approved safety device from another store no more
than 30 days prior to the day the firearm is
picked up.
(2) The purchaser or transferee presents the
approved safety device to the firearms dealer
when picking up the firearm.
(3) The purchaser or transferee presents an
original receipt to the firearms dealer which
shows the date of purchase, the name, and the
model number of the safety device.
(4) The firearms dealer verifies that the
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requirements in (1) to (3), inclusive, have been
satisfied.
(5) The firearms dealer maintains a copy of
the receipt along with the dealers' record of
sales of firearms.
3. Requires that all firearms sold or transferred in
California by a licensed firearms dealer, including
private transfers through a dealer, and all firearms
manufactured in this state be accompanied by warning
language and labels, as specified - effective January
1, 2002.
4. Requires the AG, no later than January 1, 2000, to
commence development of regulations to implement a
minimum safety standard for firearm safety devices and
gun safes to reduce the risk of firearms-related
injuries to children (no date mentioned).
5. Requires that the AG adopt and issue regulations
regarding a final safety standard for firearm safety
devices and report these standards to the Legislature
by January 1, 2001, and that these standards be
effective January 1, 2002.
6. Requires, effective January 1, 2001, that the DOJ
shall certify laboratories to test firearm safety
devices in order to verify compliance with standards
(allows fee to be charged the laboratory for
certification).
7. Requires that, on and after July 1, 2001, the DOJ
shall compile, publish, and maintain a roster of
approved safety devices that have met DOJ's standards
for sale in this state.
8. Authorizes the AG after January 1, 2002 to order
recall and replacement of any firearm safety device
that does not conform to the standards and warnings
required by the provisions of this bill, requires that
the licensed manufacturer bring the firearm safety
device into conformity, or provide a replacement. If
the firearms safety device cannot be separated from the
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firearm without damaging the firearm, the AG may order
the recall and replacement of the firearm. If the
firearms safety devices can be separated and reattached
to the firearm without damaging the firearm, the
licensed manufacturer or licensed firearms dealer shall
immediately provide a conforming replacement.
9. Requires that, effective January 1, 2000, each law
enforcement agency investigating an incident must
report to the State Department of Health Services any
incident in which a child eighteen years of age or
younger suffered an unintentional or self-inflicted
gunshot wound in which the child suffered serious
injury or was treated for an injury by a medical
professional.
10. Provides that a violation of this bill, by dealers or
manufacturers, is punishable by a fine of $1,000; a
second violation is punishable by a fine of $1,000 and
a 30-day license suspension; and a third violation
results in a permanent loss of a license.
11. Provides an exemption from the requirements of this
bill for peace officers, as specified.
12. Provides that compliance with the requirements set
forth in this article shall not relieve any person from
liability to any other person as may be imposed
pursuant to common law, statutory law, or local
ordinance.
13. Provides that these new provisions of law shall be
known and cited as the "Aroner-Scott-Hayden Firearms
Safety Act of 1999."
14. Adds related changes to law.
Section 12088.8 of this bill exempts "antique" firearms and
uses a cross-reference to Title 18 U.S.C. Section
921(a)(16):\
(16) The term "antique firearm" means --
(A) any firearm (including any firearm with a matchlock,
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flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of
ignition system) manufactured in or before 1898; and
(B) any replica of any firearm described in subparagraph
(A) if such replica --
(i) is not designed or redesigned for using
rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed
ammunition, or
(ii) uses rimfire or conventional centerfire
fixed ammunition which is no longer manufactured
in the United States and which is not readily
available in the ordinary channels of commercial
trade.
15.Authorizes DOJ to require each dealer to charge each
firearm purchaser a fee not to exceed one dollar to
support the program.
16.Creates the Firearm Safety Account in the General Fund
to accept collected fees.
Related Legislation
This bill has been amended with language intended to be
identical to AB 106 (Scott, Aroner, and Hayden), which
passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on March 23,
1999, as amended.
This bill and AB 106 are longer and more complex than
previous efforts to require that firearms be sold in
California with "trigger locks" or similar devices because
the bills this year would create a standards and
certification requirement involving the AG/DOJ and
independent laboratories. It has been suggested in
previous years that simply requiring that firearms be
sold/transferred (with handguns, long guns, or both, and
whether peace officers are exempted or not) with "trigger
locks" or similar devices would in some cases result in the
use of a shoddy or ineffective device simply to comply with
the technical requirements of the law. Whether or not that
would be the case, and how extensively it might occur, has
not been proven. It may also not be clear how difficult it
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would be to establish the standards called for by this
year's bills, how many firearms safety device manufacturer
would seek certification in California, and how costly that
process would be actually to those manufacturers and the
AG/DOJ.
Prior Legislation
SB 1550 (Hayden - 1997-98 Session): Senate Floor Vote:
23-13. Vetoed by the Governor.
AB 1124 (Aroner - 1997-98 Session): Senate Floor Vote:
22-15. Vetoed by the Governor.
SB 134 (Marks - 1993-94 Session): Senate Floor Vote:
21-11. Vetoed by the Governor.
SB 861 (1988-89 Session). Vetoed by the Governor.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 1999-2000 2000-01
2001-02 Fund
Certify labs/develop $327 $307
unknown General
standards/report offset by increased fee
revenues
roster
Law enforcement Unknown, probably not substantial
Local
notificiation to DHS increased mandated, potentially
DHS reimbursable costs
$ 58
$ 77 $77 General
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/19/99)
Handgun Control
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Los Angeles County District Attorney
Women Against Gun Violence
Trauma Foundation
California Academy of Family Physicians
Legal Community Against Violence
California Child, Youth, and Family Association
Violence Prevention Coalition of Orange County
Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence
California Psychiatric Association
City of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Police Department
City of West Hollywood
Physicians for a Violence Free Society
Government Relations Oversight Committee
California Organization of Police and Sheriffs
American Academy of Pediatricians
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/19/99)
Gun Owners of California
California Shooting Sports Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office:
In the years 1987 to 1996, nearly 2,200 children in the
United States under the age of fifteen years died in
unintentional shootings. In 1996 alone, 138 children were
shot and killed unintentionally. Thus on average, more
than eleven children every month, or one child every three
days, were shot or killed unintentionally in
firearms-related incidents.
The United States leads the industrialized world in the
rates of children and youth lost to unintentional, firearms
related death. A 1997 study from the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention reveals that for
unintentional firearm-related deaths for children under the
age of fifteen, the rate in the United States was nine
times higher than in 25 other industrialized nations.
To prevent unintentional shootings, fifteen of the nation's
firearms manufacturers agreed to sell their firearms with
trigger locks in 1997. However, there are no standards for
these safety devices, and neither the federal nor state
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government requires safety devices to be sold with
firearms. In addition, many manufacturers (including all
the California manufacturers) refused to sign onto this
agreement, and the agreement did not cover the sale of
"used" guns. For these reasons, many firearms sold in
California do not come with an adequate safety device.
The Aroner/Scott/Hayden Firearms Safety Act would do a
great deal to prevent unintentional shootings by:
1.Creating standards for firearms safety devices.
2.Requiring devices sold in California to meet these
standards.
3.Mandating that safety devices be included with all
firearms sold to Californians.
Eighty-six percent of Americans surveyed support
legislation requiring handguns to be childproof. Over 30
California cities have passed ordinances requiring safety
devices to be sold with firearms. The time has come for
statewide legislation that certifies firearms safety
devices, requires California manufacturers to package
firearms with these devices and mandates that devices be
sold with firearms.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Shooting Sports
Association states:
"Except for certain electronic devices, the requirement
that all firearms sold by a dealer be equipped with a "use
limitation device" will have little impact on preventing
firearms related accidents. Irresponsible people will not
use the devices once they have left the store. Trigger
locks and other devices have been available for years, yet
they are not widely used.
"The problem is not a lack of use limitation devices, but
is human behavior that is lacking in good judgment and
responsibility. The key to the solution is education, not
mandating more equipment that will not be used.
"During the last session of the legislature, a measure was
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defeated that would have memorialized schools to teach
students not to touch a firearm when discovered but,
instead, to go and tell an adult. This simple but
effective message to children was denied passage by the
very people who complain about firearms related accidents
involving children. This issue should be revisited. It is
only through safety education that firearm accidents will
be decreased. Mandating new equipment that will not be
used will have no effect."
RJG:cm 5/19/99 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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