LEGISLATIVE BACK-BURNER:  A Good Place for Bad Gun Bills

3 Anti-2nd Amendment Bills Hit Senate and Assembly Floors

When the 2021-2022 Legislature convened in January, we knew we were entering a battle royale for our gun rights.  With the election of Joe Biden as President and the victories the Left achieved at the federal level, we knew they were going to be emboldened and would throw every anti-gun thing our way from Washington DC to California, and boy, did they!

GOC has been tracking over 20 bills this year – a few we support, a lot we are carefully watching as they move through the process, and nine that we pulled out the stops to oppose.  Although the Legislature doesn’t adjourn the first half of the two-year session until mid-September, six out of the nine bills we vigorously opposed have now been put on the legislative back burner.  No two ways about it – THIS IS GOOD NEWS.

The three remaining bills are awful – each one is a nasty, incremental nail in the 2^nd Amendment. Our commitment to opposing the following bills will not waver and we encourage you to stand with us in this tall order.

• SB 264 / MIN – This bill prohibits gun shows on state-owned property and is nothing more than an attempt to needlessly cripple gun shows who have operated in the state practically without incident for over 50 years. THIS BILL IS CURRENTLY BEFORE THE FULL SENATE.
• SB 715 / PORTANTINO – This bill is a reintroduction of SB 914 (2020) which was vetoed by Governor Newsom. The bill is a convoluted mess, but primarily pertains to hunting license validation by the Department of Justice, complicating the issue of loaning firearms to minors, making it overly burdensome and unnecessary. The bill requires the presence of parents at all shooting activities, even when there is an abundance of adult supervision. Such a restriction unfairly and unnecessarily penalizes the many law-abiding youth in our country who are engaged in legitimate shooting sports – whether in high school or college. THIS BILL IS CURRENTLY BEFORE THE FULL SENATE.
• AB 1223 / LEVINE – This bill seeks to impose an excise tax of 10%/11% respectively on the sale of each new firearm and ammunition purchased in the state. As amended on May 24, 2021, the bill now specifies the funds raised from this tax will be deposited into the black hole of the General Fund, rather than the CalVIP program.  THIS BILL IS CURRENTLY BEFORE THE FULL ASSEMBLY.

As we have reported, GOC has hit a ton of partisan roadblocks thus far in 2021, and we aren’t naïve enough to think this is going to end any time soon.  We have been forced to be creative in how we lobby – much of it from afar and making use of technology – and working the personal relationships we have established over the years and forming valuable connections with new members and staff.

We will continue our vocal opposition to each of these three bills and encourage you to do the same – if you are uncertain how to contact/phone/email your representative, click here.  To read our letters of opposition and to check out the status of stalled bills and others we are following, click here.

Please know that we are fighting hard on your behalf at the Capitol and in the courts – and we will never report that ANY bill is officially DEAD until such time that the final gavel slams down on the dais that the Assembly and Senate have adjourned.  After all, GOC’s been around long enough to see some mighty shifty moves in the final days and hours of session.  Stay tuned, and most importantly – STAY ARMED AND INFORMED WITH GOC!