CA 2016 Two new bills to essentially ban semiautomatic rifles with removable magazine

[Librarian]

AB 1663 (Author Chiu, co-authors Levine, Ting)
Digest:

This bill would, instead, classify a semiautomatic centerfire rifle that does not have a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept no more than 10 rounds as an assault weapon. The bill would require a person who, between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2016, inclusive, lawfully possessed an assault weapon that does not have a fixed magazine, including those weapons with an ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm with the use of a tool, and who, on or after January 1, 2017, possesses that firearm, to register the firearm by July 1, 2018. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

AB 1664 (Authors Levine and Ting, co-author Chiu)
Digest:

This bill would define “detachable magazine” to mean an ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm without disassembly of the firearm action, including an ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm with the use of a tool.

Newspapers and TV stations are already reporting these with approval.

ETA: A note on reading CA bills from the Legislative website:

There are text conventions.

In the parts where the text of statutes is included, plain black text is existing law.

Text in [strike]red strikeout[/strike] is text that would be removed.

Text in blue italic would be added to the statute(s).​

If one gets the .PDF versions, the colors are omitted, but the plain/strikeout/italic conventions apply.

 

[Jason_W]

There's also Gavin Newsom's proposed ballot initiatives, one of which would require a background check for every ammo purchase, prohibit online ammo purchases, and prohibit CA residents from buying ammo out of state and bringing it back to California.

Ballot initiatives are extra worrisome, especially when it comes to gun laws.

 

[Speedo66]

Hmm...I see a run on SKS's in CA.

 

[Librarian]

3rd bill introduced Jan 15 - SB 880,
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB880

Something of a combination of the two Assembly bills; demands fixed magazines, but keeps the 'features'.

One might ask, why introduce such similar bills in each house?

Well, there's the bandwagon effect, of course. No legislator wants to be seen as behind the curve on such things.

It's also true that bills run through both houses, so any that pass need to go through reconciliation; having such similar bills this early allows most of the negotiating to happen before that last week of the session.

Legislative calendar says Feb 19 is the last day to introduce new bills, so we have another month of this insanity to anticipate.

The Budget has to be done before summer recess, by June 15, so most of these will be kind of dormant for a while. But, each house has a deadline to run new bills out of policy committees (E.G. "Public Safety") to fiscal committees (E.G. "Appropriations") on April 22.

'Go to the other house' date is June 3.

Quick path description for CA gun bills:

[House] Introduced - >
Rules (no vote) ->
Public Safety (vote)
IF PASS -> Appropriations (vote)
IF PASS -> [House] Floor (vote)

IF PASS --> [Other House], repeat as above

IF PASS -- > Governor

So, theoretically, there are 6 stages where a bill might die before it gets to the Governor's desk.

The Governor's deadline is September 30. Any 'arg! it passed!' posts are not usually significant until August 31, the last day for the Legislature to pass bills on to the Gov. 'Usually' is there because sometimes a bill will be fast-tracked and hit the Governor's desk earlier than the deadlines.