Governor Brown Makes His Decision:Signs three, Vetoes one
Sam Paredes, Executive Director
Gun Owners of California
Word just out from the Capitol is that Governor Jerry Brown has signed three of the four anti-gun bills on his desk.
On the last day for Jerry Brown to take action on bills sent to him by the State Legislature, the Governor attempted to straddle the fence by vetoing one bill and signing three others. If there was ever any doubt as to where Governor Brown stands in relationship to the Second Amendment, all doubts should be cast aside.
In signing AB 1014 by Assemblywoman Skinner-D (Temporary Restraining Order for Gun Violence-TROGV), the Governor has approved a system that will not prevent anyone with a mental or emotional condition, such that they are a danger to themselves or others, from committing an atrocity if that is their intention. The only thing this bill will do is prevent anyone served with one of these TROGV’s from purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer and they will be required to divest themselves of any firearms in their possession. Nothing in this bill prevents them from obtaining firearms through illegal means or using anything else like a car or a machete to commit an atrocity. An even bigger problem is that this law does not allow anyone issued one of these TROGV’s from addressing a court to contest the issuance for 14 days. That would be a violation of due process under the U.S. Constitution.
Our greatest concern is that even though the language of the law states that only an immediate family member can request a TROGV, immediate family member is defined as anyone who has lived with the individual over the past 6 months. This could include roommates, girl or boyfriends, who might be disgruntled. AB 1014 does make it illegal to file a frivolous request but fails to define what that means. We believe that this leaves a large window for abuse and that is a big concern.
AB 1609 by Assemblyman Alejo-D, prohibits any California resident from bringing into the state any firearms they purchased or otherwise obtained unless they have the gun delivered to a licensed CA firearms dealer for all the legal processing, including background check and waiting period. Even though that is already existing law, we guess they wanted us to know that they really mean it this time…
SB 199 by Senator DeLeon-D, basically says that if your BB or Airsoft guns are not made to look like toy guns with painted tips and bright colors, or are made of transparent materials they will be considered imitation firearms which are illegal. They want police and sheriffs to think that if they see colored guns then they must be toys and not for real. News Flash-San Jose Mercury News 9/4/14 – Headline: “San Leandro police find assault rifles made to resemble toy guns in raid.” It appears that drug gang members had painted a couple of semi-automatic AK 47’s with orange tips in order to emulate toy guns. Well…there goes that theory.
SB 808 by Senator DeLeon-R was vetoed by Governor Brown. This means that all 80%ers (those of you who have one know what I mean) and personally manufactured firearms will NOT have to apply to the California Department of Justice for a serial number and have your gun registered…at least for now. We all know that Senator DeLeon is the anti-gun version of the “energizer bunny” and he will be back next year with more legislation that is sure to violate the Second Amendment. The only hope is that as he will be returning as the new Senate President Pro-Tem he might be too busy to bother with any more anti-gun bills. As they say, hope springs eternal…or is it infernal? (Governor’s Veto Message)
Bottom line: Jerry Brown continues to be an anti-gun Governor and unless we have a miracle, we will have to deal with him for the next four years…