Gov. Brown signs 11 gun control bills, vetoes 7

Despite California's strictest gun control laws in the country, Gov. Jerry Brown signed 11 new gun control bills into law Friday, and vetoed seven.

The gun control measures signed Friday include strict limits on magazine capacities, add more paperwork for law-abiding gun owners who wish to buy or sell a gun, establish stiffer penalties for law-abiding gun owners who store a gun in a home or storage facility where a child could have access to it, and add a new ban on lead ammunition used by hunters, so that it does not endanger animals.

Lead ammo ban

One of the most controversial bills, AB 711 by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, will ban lead ammunition in hunting. Many believe this will kill the hunting industry in California.

“Lead poses a danger to wildlife,” Brown said in his signing message. But then, technically, so does hunting.

Animal rights groups, including the Humane Society, and Audubon California, led the crusade for California to be the first state in the nation to kill wild game hunting.

Humane dog-sitting

Jennifer Fearing, the California senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States, apparently lobbied Gov. Brown on AB 711 at the dog park. A recent story in the Sacramento News and Review told how Fearing dog-sits for Sutter Brown, Gov. Jerry Brown's Pembroke Welsh corgi.

“'I had this kind of random idea to take him out on the road for [Proposition] 30,' explains Jennifer Fearing, the Sacramento-based California senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States,” the Sacramento News and Review reported in “How Sutter Brown saved California.”

“Fearing had dog-sat Sutter often, and even escorted him to Los Angeles once for a spay-neuter advocacy event. So last fall, when she wanted the governor’s tax-increase measure to pass, both personally and for her organization, she suggested bringing Sutter into the spotlight.”

While Gov. Brown was considering signing the most comprehensive ammo ban in the country, the Sacramento newspaper published the story about how the California Humane Society lobbyist dog-sits for Gov. Brown's dog.

This could go a long way in explaining how the Humane Society has achieved favored environmental group status than any other environmental group in the last 3 years. It makes sense — their California lobbyist is the free doggy daycare sitter, and former Prop. 30 publicist, using the governor's dog.

But AB 711 was amended at the 11th hour in a secret deal to postpone the effective date until 2019. If, according to the Humane Society, the need for the bill is really over concerns about poisoned Condors, what about the thousands of great birds which will have died by the time the bill finally goes into effect six years from now?

Alas, Brown signed the bill. Perhaps we should blame Sutter Brown.

 Assault weapon bill

“Make no mistake this is the most draconian set of gun control measures in the nation,” said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly in a press statement. “While I am grateful that the Governor vetoed SB 374 (Steinberg), this remains the single greatest assault on the 2nd Amendment in California history.”

“The 2nd Amendment clearly states that no government entity shall infringe on our rights,” said Donnelly.  “I wonder how the millions of lawful gun owners in the State of California feel about having their rights infringed today.”

Brown vetoed SB 374, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, which would have expanded the definition of “assault weapons” to ban the future transfer of all semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines. SB374 would have required new “assault weapon” registration, and the registration of all those semi-auto rifles currently possessed, in order to retain legal possession in the future; and subjects these firearms to all other “assault weapon” restrictions.

Steinberg claimed the bill would have closed a “loophole” in California's assault weapons ban by preventing rapid reloading using replaceable magazines.

“This bill goes much farther than banning any semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine,” Brown said in his veto. Brown said he vetoed SB 374 because the bill covered many rifles used in hunting, as well as collectible guns. And, hundreds of thousands of gun owners would have to register their weapons as assault rifles in California, if SB 374 had been signed into law.

“There is no legitimate reason for hunters or sportsmen and women to have battlefield-style rifles that can quickly spray dozens and dozens of rounds through the rapid reloading of detachable magazines,” Steinberg said during the committee hearing process. “These types of weapons have in fact been used in many of the mass killings our country has suffered over the years. In nine out of ten of those mass killings, the shooter had no serious prior criminal history. It’s time to reduce the carnage. It’s time to close the loopholes.”

But Brown disagreed. “I don't think this bill's blanket ban on semi-automatic rifles would reduce criminal activity, or enhance public safety enough to warrant this infringement on gun owner's rights,” Brown said in his veto.