BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair S
2011-2012 Regular Session B
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SB 1422 (Anderson) 2
As Amended April 12, 2012
Hearing date: April 24, 2012
Penal Code
SM:mc
HANDGUN SAFETY CERTIFICATES: EXCLUSION FOR VETERANS
HISTORY
Source: AMVETS
Prior Legislation: SB 404 (Anderson) - 2011, died in Senate
Public Safety
AB 2609 (Anderson) - 2010, failed passage in
Assembly Public Safety
AB 2152 (Neilson) - 2010, failed passage in
Assembly Public Safety
AB 201 (Samuelian) - 2004, failed passage in
Assembly Public Safety
AB 2081 (Briggs) - 2002, failed passage
in Assembly Public Safety
SB 1615 (Johannessen) - 2002, died in
Senate Public Safety
SB 52 (Scott) - Chap. 942, Stats. 2001
SB 731 (Thompson) - Chap. 6, Stats. 1992
Support: California Rifle and Pistol Association
Opposition:None known
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KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE FEES CHARGED FOR HANDGUN SAFETY CERTIFICATES BE
REDUCED, AS SPECIFIED, FOR ANY HONORABLY DISCHARGED MEMBER OF
THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES, THE NATIONAL GUARD, THE AIR
NATIONAL GUARD, OR THE ACTIVE RESERVE COMPONENTS OF THE UNITED
STATES?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to (1) reduce the Handgun Safety
Certificate (HSC) fee and the HSC renewal fee that a certified
instructor may charge an honorably discharged member of the
armed forces to $15, $10 of which is to be paid to the
Department of Justice (DOJ), as specified; and (2) reduce the
fee that DOJ may charge the certified instructor to no more than
$10 for each handgun safety certificate issued by an instructor
to an honorably discharged member of the armed forces to cover
DOJ's cost in carrying out and enforcing this article, and
enforcing specified provisions as determined annually by DOJ.
Current law provides that no person shall do either of the
following:
Purchase or receive any handgun, except an antique
firearm, without a valid handgun safety certificate.
Sell, deliver, loan, or transfer any handgun, except an
antique firearm, to any person who does not have a valid
handgun safety certificate.
Any person who violates subdivision (a) is guilty of a
misdemeanor, punishable by up to 6 months in county jail, a
fine of up to $1,000, or both. (Penal Code � 31615.)
Current law requires the license applicant to complete and pass
a written test prescribed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and
administered by an instructor certified by DOJ. The test shall
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include:
The laws applicable to carrying and handling
firearms, particularly handguns;
The responsibilities of ownership of firearms,
particularly handguns;
Current law as it relates to the sale and
transfer of firearms laws;
Current law as it relates to the permissible
use of lethal force;
What constitutes safe firearm storage;
Risks associated with bringing handguns into
the home; and,
Prevention strategies to address issues associated with
bringing firearms into the home. (Penal Code � 31640.)
Current law exempts an honorably retired member of the United
States Armed Forces, the National Guard, the Air National Guard,
or active reserve components of the United States from having to
obtain a handgun safety certificate in order to purchase a
handgun. (Penal Code
� 31700(a)(1).)
Current law provides that the Department of Justice shall
develop handgun safety certificates to be issued by instructors
certified by the department, to those persons who have complied
with specified requirements. A handgun safety certificate shall
include, but not be limited to, the following information:
A unique handgun safety certificate identification
number.
The holder's full name.
The holder's date of birth.
The holder's driver's license or identification number.
The holder's signature.
The signature of the issuing instructor.
The date of issuance.
The handgun safety certificate shall expire five years after the
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date that it was issued by the certified instructor. (Penal
Code � 31655.)
This bill would reduce the Handgun Safety Certificate fee or HSC
renewal fee that a certified instructor may charge an honorably
discharged member of the armed forces to $15, $10 of which is to
be paid to the department, as specified.
This bill would reduce the fee that the department may charge
the certified instructor for each handgun safety certificate
issued by that instructor to no more than $10 for each handgun
safety certificate issued by an instructor to an honorably
discharged member of the armed forces, to cover the department's
cost in carrying out and enforcing this article, and enforcing
specified provisions, as determined annually by the department.
This bill would define, for purposes of this section, "honorably
discharged member" as an honorably discharged member of the
United States Armed Forces, the National Guard, the Air National
Guard, or the active reserve components of the United States,
who has received a United States Department of Defense
certificate of release or discharge from active duty, DD Form
214, indicating a discharge under honorable conditions.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
("ROCA")
In response to the unresolved prison capacity crisis, since
early 2007 it has been the policy of the chair of the Senate
Committee on Public Safety and the Senate President pro Tem to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate prison
overcrowding through new or expanded felony prosecutions. Under
the resulting policy known as "ROCA" (which stands for
"Receivership/Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation"), the Committee
has held measures which create a new felony, expand the scope or
penalty of an existing felony, or otherwise increase the
application of a felony in a manner which could exacerbate the
prison overcrowding crisis by expanding the availability or
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length of prison terms (such as extending the statute of
limitations for felonies or constricting statutory parole
standards). In addition, proposed expansions to the
classification of felonies enacted last year by AB 109 (the 2011
Public Safety Realignment) which may be punishable in jail and
not prison (Penal Code section 1170(h)) would be subject to ROCA
because an offender's criminal record could make the offender
ineligible for jail and therefore subject to state prison.
Under these principles, ROCA has been applied as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress towards reducing prison
overcrowding by passing legislation which could increase the
prison population. ROCA will continue until prison overcrowding
is resolved.
For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation.
On June 30, 2005, in a class action lawsuit filed four years
earlier, the United States District Court for the Northern
District of California established a Receivership to take
control of the delivery of medical services to all California
state prisoners confined by the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR"). In December of 2006,
plaintiffs in two federal lawsuits against CDCR sought a
court-ordered limit on the prison population pursuant to the
federal Prison Litigation Reform Act. On January 12, 2010, a
three-judge federal panel issued an order requiring California
to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of design
capacity -- a reduction at that time of roughly 40,000 inmates
-- within two years. The court stayed implementation of its
ruling pending the state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court upheld the
decision of the three-judge panel in its entirety, giving
California two years from the date of its ruling to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity, subject
to the right of the state to seek modifications in appropriate
circumstances. Design capacity is the number of inmates a
prison can house based on one inmate per cell, single-level
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bunks in dormitories, and no beds in places not designed for
housing. Current design capacity in CDCR's 33 institutions is
79,650.
On January 6, 2012, CDCR announced that California had cut
prison overcrowding by more than 11,000 inmates over the last
six months, a reduction largely accomplished by the passage of
Assembly Bill 109. Under the prisoner-reduction order, the
inmate population in California's 33 prisons must be no more
than the following:
167 percent of design capacity by December 27, 2011
(133,016 inmates);
155 percent by June 27, 2012;
147 percent by December 27, 2012; and
137.5 percent by June 27, 2013.
This bill does not aggravate the prison overcrowding crisis
described above under ROCA.
COMMENTS
1. Need for This Bill
According to the author:
California's veterans have honorably served our
country and state. Part of their military service is
training in basic handgun safety. Some of that
training is in a large variety of various other
weapons and weapon systems, and safety is the
cornerstone of all weapons' use. The training and
discipline that soldiers, sailors, and airmen receive
gives them a head-start on meeting the requirements of
the HSC, and the state should recognize this. SB 1422
allows those that have faithfully served our country
to pay a reduced fee ($15 instead of $25) and is a way
to honor California's veterans.
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2. History of SB 52 - Military Exemption
The law prior to 2001 exempted all honorably discharged veterans
from obtaining a Basic Firearms Safety Certificate. Under the
new Handgun Safety Licensing Program, enacted by
SB 52, that exemption was narrowed to include only honorably
retired veterans. Legislative history indicates that narrowing
of the exemption was not inadvertent.
SB 52 (Scott), Chapter 942, Statutes of 2001, repealed the Basic
Firearms Safety and Certificate Program and replaced that
program with the more stringent Handgun Safety Licensing
Program. SB 52 provided that, effective January 1, 2003, no
person may purchase, transfer, receive, or sell a handgun
without a Handgun Safety Certificate (HSC). As introduced, SB
52 contained no exemption for retired or discharged veterans.
SB 52 was amended April 5, 2001, to include an exemption to the
HSC requirement for active military and military reserve
personnel. SB 52 was amended again on June 4, 2001, and added
honorably retired members of the military to the military
exemption provision. The much broader category of all honorably
discharged members of the military was never included in the
military exemption contained in SB 52.
The fact that SB 52 intended to narrow such exemptions is
further evidenced by the fact that
SB 52 also removed the exemption for others who had been exempt
from the old Basic Firearms Safety Certificate requirement. For
example, under the old Basic Firearms Safety and Certificate
Program, anyone holding a valid hunting license or who completed
a hunter safety course was exempt from the requirement. Both of
those exemptions were eliminated by SB 52. Legislative history
strongly suggests that SB 52 was intended to tighten the
exemptions from this requirement.
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AB 35 (Shelley) Chapter 940, Statutes of 2001, was identical to
SB 52 and was chaptered out by the enactment of SB 52. AB 35
also did not include an exemption for all honorably discharged
veterans, but limited that exemption to honorably retired
veterans.
This bill, as recently amended, does not seek to exempt veterans
from the HSC requirement, but now would reduce the fee paid by
honorably discharged veterans for this certificate.
3. Prior Legislation
SB 404 (Anderson) of the 2011-2012 legislative session would
have exempted all honorably discharged veterans from having to
obtain an HSC in order to purchase a handgun.
SB 404 was not heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee.
AB 2152 (Neilson) of the 2009-2010 legislative session would
have exempted honorably discharged veterans from having to
obtain an HSC in order to purchase a handgun.
AB 201 failed passage in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
AB 2609 (Anderson), of the 2009-2010 legislative session would
have exempted honorably discharged veterans from having to
obtain an HSC in order to purchase a handgun.
AB 201 failed passage in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
AB 201 (Samuelian), of the 2003-04 legislative session would
have exempted honorably discharged veterans from having to
obtain an HSC in order to purchase a handgun.
AB 201 failed passage in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
AB 2081 (Briggs), of the 2001-02 legislative session would have
exempted an honorably discharged veterans from having to obtain
an HSC in order to purchase a handgun.
AB 2081 failed passage in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
SB 1615 (Johannessen), of the 2001-02 legislative session would
have exempted an honorably discharged veterans from having to
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obtain an HSC in order to purchase a handgun.
SB 1615 was not heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee.
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