California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a number of gun-related bills into law. A few of them grabbed our interest. Check out how Cali just became AGAIN the WORST 2a State in the nation.
The first, AB 2642, by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, is intended to crack down on people who openly carry firearms in front of poling places.
The bill creates a presumption that a person who does so, while interacting with or observing election-related activities, is engaging in intimidation.
“The PEACE Act would make it clear that the polling place is not the place for guns by creating a presumption that people who carry firearms around election activities or workers did so with the intent to intimidate,” Berman said in the statement. And then there’s AB 2739, by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, D-San Diego. That bill makes it so that people who either openly or concealed carry in a prohibited place can have their guns seized and destroyed.
“This bill will help increase public safety by cracking down on irresponsible gun ownership and removing illegally carried weapons from our streets,” Maienschein said in a statement supporting the bill. Finally, there’s SB 902, by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside. That bill bars people convicted on animal cruelty charges from legally possessing a firearm for 10 years.
In a statement, Newsom said of the bills, “California won’t wait until the next school shooting or mass shooting to act.” He slammed Congress for its inaction on the issue of gun control, and said the Golden State is leading the nation on gun laws.
Newsom this week also signed AB 1858, by Assemblyman Chris Ward, D-San Diego, into law.
That bill would, among other things, require school shooting drills to be “age-appropriate,” ban “simulated fire” during such drills, and require greater parental notification that such drills are taking place. “The Safe and Prepared Schools Act will ensure that we are not doing more harm than good in training our students to be ready in the event of these unfortunate tragedies,” Ward said in a statement. “At the same time, school staff will have clear guidance on how to implement these drills in a responsible and professional way so we’re not creating more anxiety and traumatizing our students,” he said.
California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S., even without the legislative package of 24 new bills signed into law. Gun-rights supporters opposed some of the new measures.
The package includes measures strengthening storage requirements for gun owners to keep firearms away from children, providing comprehensive school-safety plans during an active-shooter threat, and preventing what Newsom’s office considers gun-related hate crimes, according to the Associated Press.
One of the bills requires so-called “ghost guns” marked for disposal to be destroyed in their “entirety by smelting, shredding, crushing, or cutting all parts of the firearm, including any attachments.” Ghost guns are homemade firearms without a serial number, which makes them untraceable.
Newsom signed one bill which extends that red flag law to people who commit or threaten hate-based violence based on extremist ideology
This bill would require the court to additionally consider a recent threat of violence or act of violence directed toward another group or location, or a past history of those threats or acts. The bill would authorize the court to consider, among other things, the unlawful and reckless use, display, or brandishing of a firearm indicating an increased risk for violence or actual threat of violence by the subject of the petition, evidence of stalking, evidence of cruelty to animals, or evidence of the respondent’s threats of violence to advance a political objective. The bill would also authorize the court to consider violations of comparable firearm-prohibiting protective orders issued by out-of-state courts. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Full list of Bills As follows
- AB 960 by Assemblymember Devon Mathis (R-Porterville) – School safety: web-based or app-based school safety programs
- AB 1252 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) – Office of Gun Violence Prevention
- AB 1858 by Assemblymember Christopher Ward (D-San Diego) – Comprehensive school safety plans: active shooters: armed assailants: drills
- AB 1974 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) – Family conciliation courts: evaluator training (signed earlier this year)
- AB 2565 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – School facilities: interior locks
- AB 2621 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) – Law enforcement training
- AB 2629 by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) – Firearms: prohibited persons
- AB 2642 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Elections: intimidation
- AB 2739 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) – Firearms
- AB 2759 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine)
- AB 2822 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) – Domestic violence
- AB 2842 by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo) – Firearms
- AB 2907 by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) – Firearms: restrained persons
- AB 2917 by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) – Firearms: restraining orders
- AB 3064 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) – Firearms
- AB 3072 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) — Child custody: ex parte orders (signed earlier this year)
- AB 3083 by Assemblymember Tom Lackey — Domestic violence: protective orders: background checks
- SB 53 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) – Firearms: storage
- SB 758 by Senator Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana) – Firearms
- SB 899 by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) – Protective orders: firearms
- SB 902 by Senator Richard D. Roth (D-Riverside) – Firearms: public safety
- SB 965 by Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) – Firearms
- SB 1002 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) –Firearms: prohibited persons
- SB 1019 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) – Firearms: destruction