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| California Democrat proposes mandatory gun registration |
| 2010-04-07 |
| A California Democrat is proposing a new law requiring residents to register their shotguns and rifles or go to jail, CBSNews.com has learned. Assemblyman Mike Feuer, whose district includes Beverly Hill and West Hollywood, this week introduced legislation ordering law enforcement to "permanently keep" records of anyone who buys a gun from a dealer or an individual. California already stores information about handgun purchases. Feuer is no friend of firearms owners: his previous legislative effort, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law, required all new handguns to include "microstamping" technology that can imprint serial numbers on spent ammunition casings. As a Los Angeles city councilman, Feuer proposed limiting city residents to one gun a month. Feuer spokeswoman Arianna Smith declined to answer questions about the bill on Tuesday afternoon, saying the staff member involved was in a meeting and not immediately available. The proposal comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a landmark civil rights case, McDonald v. Chicago, which will decide whether Second Amendment rights in the federal constitution trump state anti-gun laws. But California is proposing mandatory registration -- and not a flat ban, as Washington, D.C. once tried and the justices rejected -- and even legal scholars specializing in this area disagree about whether registration is constitutional. "Even though the constitutionality of such a measure is a close call, it is a horrible public policy choice," says Gene Hoffman, chairman of the CalGuns Foundation. "Just as Canada is about to do away with their long gun registry after squandering $1 billion, California wishes to attack law abiding gun owners for firearms not used in crime." A CBC News article last month reported that the Canadian parliament is backing away from the nation's gun registry, which was enacted in 1989 and has now come under fire by critics who call it a billion-dollar boondoggle. Feuer's bill isn't exactly a surprise: He told the Brady Campaign, an anti-gun advocacy group, earlier this year that his forthcoming proposal would give law enforcement another tool to track down people in possession of illegal firearms. "This legislation will close a glaring loophole and ensure that all firearm records, not just handgun records, are maintained for law enforcement purposes," Ellen Boneparth, spokesperson for the California Brady Campaign Chapters, said in a statement at the time. Feuer appears to have adopted an unusual approach to introducing his mandatory registration bill. He took an existing piece of criminal legislation, AB 1810, that dealt with graffiti and vandalism, and replaced it with a completely new version with the same bill number. A hearing is scheduled for April 13 in Sacramento before the California State Assembly's Committee on Public Safety. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 And its a very scenic 100 miles. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-04-07 19:39 |
| #7 bman, because Reno is only 100 miles from Auburn, California. |
| Posted by: AuburnTom 2010-04-07 19:37 |
| #6 Auburn Tom why would you go to Nevada to buy a firearm? |
| Posted by: bman 2010-04-07 12:19 |
| #5 The left can just stay in Kalifornia, grow pot, sell it to each other and stay stoned. They are oblivious anyway. Dude, like, OK, but can you loan us $1 billion for the database to register the guns? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-04-07 11:55 |
| #4 All this can be boiled down to one simple sentence for me.... If I purchase a gun, go to Nevada. |
| Posted by: AuburnTom 2010-04-07 11:21 |
| #3 Thats cuz when these goofs sit in their climate controlled non-brownout offices and write deep thought laws, they don't have to go to the rough neighborhoods and hills themselves knocking door-to-door, "Declare your Firearms!". Other people put their lives on the line so the goofs feel good at cocktail parties. And if ya take JohnQC's advice, whereever you go give yourself a couple years to learn the local culture...no offense but a lot of y'all are culturally infected to some degree by no fault of your own. So what do you all CAs think about there not being any money to house criminals but there is space to throw rifle/shotgun owners in the pen who have not committed a crime? The best part of this article: He took an existing piece of criminal legislation, AB 1810, that dealt with graffiti and vandalism, and replaced it with a completely new version with the same bill number. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-04-07 11:08 |
| #2 I wonder how much gun crime all of California's other gun laws have prevented? They are one of the most anti-gun states in the union, but from what I understand they have terrible gun crime. There are way too many politicians with "great ideas" these days, and way too many sheeple that happily follow them around bleating out slogans. It sickens me. |
| Posted by: Keeney 2010-04-07 10:53 |
| #1 All the left-wing control freaks who want to create a nanny state nightmare such as Kalifornia; just keep it but don't try to infect the rest of the country. Kalifornia is too far gone and beyond hope. Everyone else who wants to have a decent life should leave and go elsewhere. Industry has already fled Kalifornia because business is too costly and over-regulated to compete. The left can just stay in Kalifornia, grow pot, sell it to each other and stay stoned. They are oblivious anyway. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-07 10:37 |