Calif. Lawmakers Move to Tighten Gun Laws Even More: Here’s What You Need to Know

California lawmakers are sending several bill’s to Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk that, pending his approval, would tighten the state’s gun laws even more.

The new bills would outlaw semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines, ban tools that would allow magazines to be converted into high-capacity magazines, mandate that all customers apply for a safety certification before being allowed to purchase a gun, and “require ownership records for all firearms,” Bloomberg notes.

But it wasn’t all bad news for California gun owners: state lawmakers rejected Thursday a bill that would have banned all magazines capable of holding 10 or more rounds.

Gov. Jerry Brown discusses a proposal to reduce California's prison population, at a Capitol news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013. Credit: AP

Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) proposed the bill.

CBS San Francisco notes a careful distinction: “State law already prohibits the sale, gift and loan of large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.”

Sen. Hancock’s bill would have banned all such magazines from the state. In fact, as proposed in the now-junked bill, gun owners would have also been forced to dispose of such magazines by July 2014.

Lawmakers also rejected a bill that would have required permits and background checks for anyone attempting to purchase bullets and/or shells.

The bills sent to Gov. Brown “are designed to close loopholes, to keep the circulation of guns and ammunition out of the hands of dangerous persons,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento.

“The common characteristic in each of these mass shootings is easy access to rapidly reloading guns with detachable high-capacity magazines," Steinberg  added.

The bills sent to Gov Brown also bar the sale, purchase, manufacture or importation of “center-fire semi-automatic rifles that can accept detachable magazines,” Bloomberg notes.

Once signed, the bills would also extend the ban on so-called “assault weapons” to include shotguns with rifled bores and “revolving ammunition cylinders.”

California, you may recall, passed some of the nation’s first bans on semi-automatic rifles following 1989 elementary school in Stockton that killed five children and wounded 29, the Bloomberg report points out.

“A federal ban passed in 1994 has since expired and efforts to restore it, led by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, stalled in Congress,” it adds.

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Featured image Getty Images.

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