Governor Gavin Newsom has signed yet one more piece of “first-in-the-nation” gun management into regulation — this time concentrating on handguns that may allegedly be “simply transformed” into absolutely automated weapons.
Meeting Invoice 1127, authored by Meeting members Jesse Gabriel and Catherine Stefani, bans California gun sellers from promoting pistols that may settle for unlawful “Glock switches” or related conversion gadgets, gadgets which can be already banned underneath federal regulation and carry severe prison penalties for possession or use.
Whereas gun management teams like Everytown for Gun Security, Mothers Demand Motion, and College students Demand Motion are celebrating the brand new regulation as a “historic victory,” critics argue it does little to cease violent criminals who already ignore current legal guidelines, and as a substitute additional restricts law-abiding gun homeowners and sellers.
A Answer in Search of a Drawback
So-called “Glock switches” — tiny conversion gadgets that may flip a semi-automatic pistol into a completely automated weapon are already extremely unlawful underneath federal regulation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) classifies them as machine weapons underneath the Nationwide Firearms Act (NFA). Possession with out correct licensing may end up in as much as 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fantastic.
In different phrases, California already had all of the legal guidelines essential to prosecute anybody caught with one.
As a substitute of concentrating on criminals who illegally import or 3D-print these gadgets, AB 1127 goals for producers and gun shops, banning gross sales of total pistol fashions that anti-gun lawmakers declare may very well be “simply transformed.”
As traditional, the regulation punishes the authorized firearm business whereas ignoring the basis of the issue: prison misuse of firearms and failure to implement current regulation.
The Political Victory Everytown Needed
Everytown for Gun Security’s president John Feinblatt praised the transfer, saying it “forces the gun business to take primary steps to stop mass carnage.”
Translation: California politicians are as soon as once more utilizing emotional speaking factors and tragic anecdotes to justify restrictions that don’t have any measurable influence on crime.
Mothers Demand Motion’s management echoed the sentiment, claiming the regulation “places lives over earnings” and “will get DIY machine weapons off our streets.” However the firearms focused by this laws had been already authorized, regulated, and bought by background checks — not the unlawful machine weapons seen in gang-related violence throughout Los Angeles and Oakland.
As TTAG has coated for years, the state’s “commonsense” legal guidelines persistently fail to cut back crime, at the same time as California’s violent crime charge continues to climb — regardless of being probably the most closely regulated gun states within the nation.
Selective Enforcement and Misplaced Blame
Lawmakers, similar to Meeting member Jesse Gabriel, known as AB 1127 a “commonsense” step to “maintain the gun business accountable.” However what’s truly being held accountable?
Not criminals.
Not smugglers.
Not the unlawful networks trafficking actual machine gun conversion kits into cities.
As a substitute, this regulation successfully pressures producers like Glock, SIG Sauer, and Smith & Wesson to revamp pistols which can be already in compliance with each federal and state requirements — or danger dropping entry to the California market altogether.
It’s a well-recognized technique: regulate firearms out of existence by redefining them as “unsafe” or “simply convertible,” and let bureaucratic interpretation do the remaining.
California’s Limitless Struggle on Authorized Gun Possession
California already bans “assault weapons,” standard-capacity magazines, pistol braces, and dozens of different firearm elements. The state additionally enforces a handgun roster that eliminates tons of of recent fashions from being bought, leaving Californians with outdated, restricted choices.
Now, with AB 1127, Sacramento politicians are including one other layer to the paperwork, claiming victory whereas on a regular basis residents lose entry to lawful firearms.
Because the state celebrates its “first-in-the-nation” laws, law-abiding gun homeowners are left questioning:
When will lawmakers begin holding criminals accountable as a substitute of gun homeowners?
TTAG’s Take
AB 1127 is one other performative gun management measure wrapped within the language of “security.” The gadgets it claims to cease are already unlawful, and the criminals who use them will proceed to take action. In the meantime, the firearms business and law-abiding residents will as soon as once more pay the value for California’s obsession with regulating freedom.
California’s politicians could name this a “historic victory.”
Gun homeowners understand it for what it’s — one other notch within the state’s lengthy document of punishing the harmless whereas ignoring the responsible.
