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Gun Confiscation Bill Proposed in California: ‘We Can Save Lives’

Feb. 8, 2013 3:35pm Jason Howerton

Credit: Getty Images

Law abiding gun owners in California have to feel uneasy after Democrats rolled out a massive gun control package on Thursday, which includes strict ammunition regulations and even a bill that allows potential confiscation of the state’s 166,000 legally registered semi-automatic rifles.

Under the sweeping gun control bills introduced by state Senate Democrats, all semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines would be banned, all guns would be registered and gun owners would need a special permit just to buy ammunition.

The proposals appear to be even more draconian than New York’s recent gun control legislation, considered to be the toughest in the nation.

Mercury News has more details:

The 10-bill package constitutes the single largest gun control push in decades in the Golden State, which already boasts some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. It joins equally controversial proposals from Assembly Democrats that would regulate and tax ammunition sales and consider taking the state’s 166,000 registered assault weapons from their owners.

This first unified California plan comes less than a month after New York adopted its own sweeping package of new gun controls and President Barack Obama announced a package of executive actions, all in the wake of December’s Connecticut schoolhouse massacre. Even as this plan emerged Thursday, House Democrats’ gun violence task force was announcing 15 “policy principles,” including protecting Second Amendment rights but also instituting universal background checks and reinstating a federal assault weapons ban.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) on Thursday defended the huge gun control package, saying “California’s tough gun laws have been exploited long enough.” He also said he respects the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to have firearms for hunting, sport and home defense.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, second from left, glances to a pair of semi-automatic rifles as he discusses a package of proposed gun control legislation at a Capitol news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Senate Democrats unveiled a package of 10 proposed laws designed to close loopholes in existing gun regulations, keep firearms and ammunition out of the hands of dangerous person and strengthen education relating to firearms and gun ownership. Also seen are Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, third from left, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, second from right. Credit: AP

That being said, he believes the sweeping gun regulations will “save lives.”

“We can save lives by curbing the proliferation of guns designed to be fired and reloaded rapidly,” he said. “We can save lives by getting guns and ammunition out of the hands of the wrong people. We can save lives if every gun owner knows how to safely handle those guns. And if we can save lives, we must act to do so.”

However, pro-gun advocates argue that the bills are unconstitutional and infringe on the Second Amendment.

“[A]lmost every item in the proposal is wildly unconstitutional,” said Gene Hoffman of Redwood City, co-founder and chairman of the Calguns Foundation gun rights group. He also said the state’s overreach may “accelerate the speed at which the Supreme Court takes these ideas off the table.”

Mercury News reports other bills would also include the following regulations:

Require anyone wishing to buy ammunition to first get a permit by passing a background check, as Los Angeles and Sacramento already do.

Update the definition of a banned shotgun with a revolving cylinder to include the new technology of a shotgun-rifle combination.

Prevent unregulated gun loans, with some exceptions, including hunting, in order to keep weapons from those who haven’t passed background checks.

Require all handgun owners obtain a safety certificate every year, rather than the every-five-years requirement for purchases of new handguns.

Prohibit anyone barred from owning a weapon from living in a home where weapons are kept and to expand the list of crimes for which convictions result in being barred from gun possession.

Let the state Justice Department use money from the state’s Dealer’s Record of Sale system to eliminate the backlog of people identified as no longer allowed to own guns but not yet investigated and contacted by law enforcement.

(H/T: Weasel Zippers)

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Comments (903)

Al J Zira
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:33pm
I like the: “confiscation of the state’s 166,000 legally registered semi-automatic rifles.” That way the state can make sure only gangs and criminals can have them. Idiots!

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lvjohn
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:31pm
hopefully california will be hit with a magnitute 10 earthquake and the state will sink into the Pacific.

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- mrunner
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:16pm
  It is a beautiful state. Can’t we just have an epidemic type plague that only effects those of low morals and intellect? That would wipe out the majority of the population of California. Heck, there may not be a soul alive in San Fransisco after an event like that…
  
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MrKnowItAll
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:31pm
Who Needs a Gun in California. Everyone is being Raped by Taxes.

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nesmond
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:30pm
This really sucks. If this passes, lots of other states will follow Cali’s lead. No telling how many will die as a result of unconstitutional laws being passed. Obama says, “No one wants to take your guns away”, and within days, they want to take your guns away.

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common cents
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:30pm
The only lives that they are worried about saving is their own Tyrannical, worthless, pitiful, disgusting,
ungodly, immoral, lawless, American hating, money stealing, socialist, communist, lives.
I left that God forsaken sorry excuse for a state in Jan. 1995 took all my guns/ money/ business with me, along with my dignity, and moved to Arkansas. Best thing I ever done. Now I live on 80 acres that has been in my family since 1860, called the “Cold Dead Hands Ranch” named in honor of the late Charlton Heston, A true American. Long live the Republic of the united States of America

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1Haole_Boy
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:29pm
WHAT TO SAY WHEN THEY COME FOR YOUR GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!
I brought my gun fishing and I hit a rogue wave capsizing the boat losing my gun to the deep officer!
My dog ate my Glock !

I haven’t been able to find it since hurricane Iwa knocked down the cottage I was living in!

I was eating some mushrooms in Haleiwa and a Menehune wen rip off my Glock when I wasn’t looking!

Officer, I was sacrificing a virgin to the volcano when a booming voice told me, ‘let the wahine go, throw the Glock inside the volcano instead!

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T-2
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:29pm
Californian should get a nice sofa so they can negotiate with the bad guy what he would like to take.

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greenroughneck
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:29pm
So. I guess the civil war will start in CA. Good, has to start somewhere, might as well be in the home of Hollywood! They deserve it. Can’t wait till the power goes out and the stuff hits the fan!

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atcmc50
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:29pm
Should those of us in the great state of Texas really care? They voted them in and looked down on us for our paranoia.

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KP74
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:28pm
Having moved out of California three years ago it is apparent that anyone that is staying there is too crazy to be allowed to have a gun (unless they are in the central valley). The people along the coast keep voting for the nuts, how sane can they be?

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Cappy1918
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:28pm
Yeah, welcome to California, the world’s largest open air sanitarium. They burrow out sometimes and come in a few other places: Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C.

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lembrandt
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:27pm
And so another entire state and/or city run by democrats, will disarm its law abiding citizens leaving only the criminals to have enough fire power to create mayhem. Nobody will be able to defend themselves and anybody stupid enough to wait for the police will wind up dead. Way to go California, way to go…God Almighty, liberal/democrat/progressive/socialists are the most moronic, illogical semi humans on the planet.

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1Haole_Boy
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:27pm
LIES YOU CAN TELL THE GOVERNMENT GUYS WHEN THEY COME FOR YOUR GUNS!

I brought my gun fishing and I hit a rogue wave capsizing the boat losing my gun to the deep officer!
My dog ate my Glock !

I haven’t been able to find it since hurricane Iwa knocked down the cottage I was living in!

I was eating some mushrooms in Haleiwa and a Menehune wen rip off my Glock when I wasn’t looking!

Officer, I was sacrificing a virgin to the volcano when a booming voice told me, ‘let the wahine go, throw the Glock inside the volcano instead!

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Frederick_Douglass_Republican
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:24pm
Maybe those concerned looking c – s’ers in the photo would like to go knocking on doors to confiscate guns themselves.

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mrunner
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:24pm
It is seeming more and more that the “Civil Servants” who seek to be our masters are waking up to the fact that many citizens have had enough. The more frightened they become that they may lose their power- the harder they are pushing to create a defenseless population. Don’t be sheep California Citizens!! You cannot expect the government to run your lives for you, take your arms and protect you and make all your decisions for you. Stand up or this will not end well!

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RightUnite
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:23pm
That is F’ing B.S. Only in lala land would they ever think they could push this through!

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LightvsDarkness
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:23pm
Get me the hell out here. I am gone from Cali this summer. Ain’t givin my tax dollars to this kind totalitarian bull crap.

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Bonnieblue2A
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:21pm
If CA wants to save lives why don’t they enforce federal immigration laws? How many people are killed in CA by illegal aliens gang members each year?

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bcanddc
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:20pm
I’m a native Californian but if this passes, not only will I not register a single thing, I will pack up and leave. This state is going to hell in a hand basket and I don’t care to be here when it blows up.

I’m looking at Texas for the most part. Arizona is nice too but the lib insanity is creeping in there too.

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Snaker
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:19pm
You voted them in, Kalifornicators….. Now you get to live with them…. Or die with them…..

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Reptillica
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:19pm
California will be Mexico in 4 years.

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elosogrande
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:19pm
UI wonder if the people living around Big Bear Mountain would be willing to give up their guns today. I know that I wouldn’t.

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Dr.Fez
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:19pm
Oh, I just love this one:

“Prohibit anyone barred from owning a weapon from living in a home where weapons are kept and to expand the list of crimes for which convictions result in being barred from gun possession.”

First off, what is this new list going to include?
Secondly, they’ll basically force you to either turn out your gun, or turn out the person. Have they not heard of people locking them up so people cannot get them?

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high school drop out
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:18pm
Yeah Blazing, They do, its sort of like an “idiot road show”

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John.Galt
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:17pm
Good, chase some more law-abiding TAX PAYERS out of your state. Hopefully Phil Michelson will quietly relocate to Florida to SAVE $2 MILLION+ IN TAXES!

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