Change in assault weapons
SB 249 is a needed correction of the loopholes in the state law
California has some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws. However, these laws contain loopholes that should be closed, like the one that allows owners of assault weapons to evade state restrictions.
Our state set limits on assault weapons in 1989. Ever since, gun manufacturers have made changes to sidestep some of those limitations. One of the changes the industry made is a system that allows reloading of semi-automatics in seconds, increasing their ability to fire more bullets in less time.
In fact, this modification voids the intent of the ban. Therefore, we welcome SB 249, a bill introduced by Senator Leland Yee that seeks to re-modify the weapons so their mechanism complies with state law once again.
As usual, gun advocacy organizations claim that if this bill is approved, there will be massive weapon confiscations -impacting sports shooters and hunters in addition to families who would be unable to defend themselves from criminals. As always, this is also an exaggeration that makes no sense.
In reality, the modification the new law would require is welding that can be done in minutes; that is why the idea of weapons being confiscated is just a scare tactic. On the other hand, neither hunters nor sports shooters need a weapon with such high-speed ability, and neither do families to protect themselves from crime. Assault weapons, as war tools, have the ability to quickly kill more enemies in less time and have no usefulness whatsoever in civil society.
There are other proposals in Sacramento involving this issue, like one that requires reporting to police the purchase of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, a ban on the sale of conversion kits that allow more than 10 rounds to be shot without reloading, and one that includes long guns among those banned from being carried “in plain sight” unloaded and in a public place.
These bills, just like Yee’s, have a common sense focus without being restrictive regarding an individual’s right to bear arms according to the Second Amendment.
We hope the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which this week will hold a public hearing on SB 249, passes the bill so that the spirit of the assault weapons ban imposed several decades ago is respected once again.
