BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1219
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Date of Hearing: April 17, 2001
Counsel: Gregory Pagan
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Carl Washington, Chair
AB 1219 (Frommer) - As Amended: April 5, 2001
SUMMARY : Prohibits the sale of any pistol or revolver
manufactured on or after January 1, 2004 unless that firearm
includes an integrated safety device, as specified, designed to
prevent children and others from discharging the firearm.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that no licensed firearms dealer may sell, loan, or
transfer any pistol, revolver, or firearm capable of being
concealed upon the person manufactured on or after January 1,
2004 unless that firearm contains an integrated mechanical
safety device or other incorporated design technology designed
to prevent children and other unauthorized users from
discharging the firearm.
2)Defines "integrated mechanical safety device" as a disabling
or locking device incorporated within the firearm's design,
part of its original manufacture, and technology that
automatically limits its operational use and cannot be readily
deactivated so that the firearm may only be fired by an
authorized or recognized user.
3)Specifies that the technology limiting the firearm's
operational use may include, but is not limited to, radio
tagging, touch memory, remote control, fingerprint magnetic
encoding, and other user identification systems using
biometrics, mechanical, or electronic systems.
4)Requires the Attorney General (AG) to adopt rules and
regulations for the implementation of the above requirements.
5)Provides that a violation of this section is punishable by a
civil penalty of $50,000 for each firearm that is in violation
of this section, and a firearm dealer's license shall be
subject to forfeiture as well.
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6)Exempts the sale, loan or transfer of any firearm to a law
enforcement officer or agency, as specified.
7)Exempts the sale, loan or transfer of a curio or relic, as
defined.
EXISTING LAW :
1)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 include or be accompanied by a firearms safety
device approved by the AG. [Penal Code Section 12088.1(a).]
2)Requires the AG, not later than January 1, 2000, to commence
development of regulations to implement a minimum safety
standard for firearm safety devices to reduce the risk of
firearms-related injuries to children. [Penal Code Section
12088.2(a).]
3)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. These
standards become effective January 1, 2002. [Penal Code
Section 12088.2 (b).]
4)Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to certify
laboratories to test firearm safety devices in order to verify
compliance with standards, and to compile and publish a roster
of approved safety devices that have met DOJ's standards.
(Penal Code Section 12088.)
5)Authorizes the AG, after January 1, 2002, to order recall and
replacement of any firearm or firearm safety device that does
not conform to the standards and warnings required by the
provisions of this bill, and requires that the licensed
manufacturer bring the firearm or the firearm safety device
into conformity, or provide a replacement. (Penal Code
Section 12088.4.)
6)Requires that all firearms sold or transferred in California
by a licensed firearms dealer, including private transfers
through a dealer, and all firearms manufactured, bear a
specific warning label. (Penal Code Section 12088.3.)
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7)Requires that law enforcement investigating an incident must
report to the AG any incident in which a child 18 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. (Penal Code
Section 12088.5.)
8)Provides that a violation of any of the above provisions 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. (Penal Code Section 12088.6.)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement . According to the author, "Current law
requires that trigger locks be sold along with every handgun
in California. Many gun owners, however, do not utilize those
locks, and recent studies by the United States Consumer
Protection Agency has found that many trigger locks are easily
defeated. Approximately 100,000 firearms are stolen every
year in California. The vast majority of those weapons are
handguns. Many of those weapons are later used in crimes
throughout California.
"AB 1219 would require every handgun sold in California after
January 1, 2004 be equipped with an integrated safety device
that would prevent children and any unauthorized users from
firing the handgun. These devices would be a disabling or
locking mechanism that would prevent the handgun from being
discharged unless it has been removed or deactivated. The AG
is currently examining new trigger lock technologies including
those incorporated within the weapon.
"Pursuant to the settlement agreement with Handgun Control,
Inc., Smith & Wesson, America's largest handgun manufacturer,
agreed to incorporate integrated trigger-locking mechanisms
within all their new models by March of 2003."
2)Background . AB 106, (Scott), Chapter 246, Statutes of 1999,
provided that effective January 1, 2002, any firearm sold or
transferred in California by a licensed firearms dealer,
including a private transfer through a dealer, and any
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firearms manufactured include or be accompanied by a firearms
safety device approved by the AG. In addition, the AG was
required to develop minimum safety standard for firearm safety
devices to reduce the risk of firearms-related injuries to
children. Further, the AG was required to adopt and issue
regulations regarding a final safety standard for firearm
safety devices and report these standards to the Legislature
by January 1, 2001. These standards become effective as of
January 1, 2002. This bill prohibits the sale of any pistol
or revolver manufactured on or after January 1, 2004 unless
that firearm includes an integrated safety device, as
specified, designed to prevent children and others from
discharging the firearm. In light of the fact that all
firearms sold after January 1, 2002 must be accompanied by an
approved firearm safety device, is this bill necessary?
According to the author, pursuant to the settlement agreement
with Handgun Control, Inc., Smith & Wesson has agreed to
incorporate integrated trigger-locking mechanisms within all
their new models by March 2003. However, this bill defines an
"integrated mechanical safety device" as a disabling or
locking device incorporated within the firearm's design, part
of its original manufacture, and technology that automatically
limits its operational use and cannot be readily deactivated
so that the firearm may only be fired buy an authorized or
recognized user. Thus, this bill goes further than requiring
that each weapon sold contain an integrated trigger-locking
mechanism because this bill requires that the firearm may only
be fired by an authorized or recognized user, which means that
guns manufactured and sold after January 1, 2004 would have to
be so called "smart guns." Although technology is moving in
this direction and prototypes have been developed, it has not
been demonstrated that smart guns will be available for
general consumer use by January 1, 2004. Before these weapons
could ever be sold to the general public, there would have to
be extensive safety testing to ensure that the smart gun is
not more dangerous than a simple mechanically operated
firearm. There is also an issue of cost. Would "smart guns"
be so prohibitively expensive that the sale of new firearms
would be effectively curtailed?
3)Smart Gun Technology . In 1994, the National Institute for
Justice (NIJ) funded a "Smart Gun Technology Project". The
project's ultimate goal was to identify a technology that
could be integrated into a firearm to prevent it from
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functioning in the hands of an unauthorized user. Effort was
made to identify the requirements that peace officers might
have for such smart gun technology, to evaluate technologies
that meet the officers' smart firearm needs and to develop
methods to demonstrate how smart gun technology might operate.
Technologies explored included: "Automatic Identification"
(generally an electronic device that allows a gun to fire when
the device receives a code transmitted from a separate device
worn by the authorized user of a firearm), "Biometric" (those
that allow the firearm to function when they "read" the
authorized user's fingerprint or speech pattern or detect some
other identifiable human factor) and "Miscellaneous"
(including devices such as combination locks that do not
require electricity to operate).
In its 1996 report to the NIJ, the project managers stated that
"there is no perfect technology that will meet all the
officer's requirements." The highest grade received by any of
the prototypes was a "B". The four highest ranked devices
were radio frequency devices. Their downside: interference
by electromagnic currents can cause them to not operate as
intended and guns so equipped are useless if the officer
forgets to wear the ring, watchband or other item containing
the requisite transmitter. Also, devices that operate on
batteries become useless when the batteries fail. Other
technologies had a variety of advantages and disadvantages.
The project concluded: "It may take a generation of smart gun
systems to come and go before a smart gun is not only common
but favored over a non-smart gun. . . . To accomplish this
goal, a great deal of time and resources will have to be
expended for the smart gun application." In light of the NIJ
study, is this bill premature? Should the bill be amended to
remove references to authorized or recognized users? Should
this bill simply require that all guns sold after the
effective date have an integrated mechanical trigger-locking
device which prevents accidental discharge?
4)Arguments in Support . The Trauma Foundation states, "AB 1219
addresses one of the fundamental strategies of the public
health field of injury prevention - making consumer products
safer. While a gun is designed to kill people, unfortunately
because of the failure of the firearms industry to voluntarily
develop and introduce product that will not function when used
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by someone other than the authorized user. The development of
technology to prevent non-authorized users from operating the
firearm has been rapidly moving forward. There exists a
variety of technologies that will serve the purpose of this
legislation, everything from encoded rings to thumbprint
digital identification systems, will provide heretofore
unattainable level of safety for consumers. It will also
provide a disincentive for the theft of these consumer
products."
5)Prior Legislation . AB 106 (Scott), Chapter 246, Statutes of
1999, required the AG to develop and implement minimum safety
standards for firearms safety devices, and mandates that all
firearms manufactured in California or sold or transferred by
a licensed firearms dealer be accompanied by an approved
firearms safety device and bear a safety warning label.
REGISTERED SUPPORT/OPPOSITION :
Support
Independent Cities Association
Trauma Foundation
California Medical Association
Opposition
Gun Owners of California
National Rifle Association of America
Analysis Prepared by : Gregory Pagan / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744