Banned guns not the ones used in crimes

In the wake of firearms madness on both sides of the issue comes a batch of material obtained via public records request from guns.com, a news website that editorially tilts toward the support of gun rights.

The site found that while rifles compose the bulk of the state’s prohibited registered weapons, handguns account for 90 percent of the guns used in crime noted in a state Department of Justice crime study in 2013.

From a story on the records:

“The most popular caliber on the [assault weapon ban] list, .223, accounted for a single firearm used in the crime study. Of the 105 guns, only two were registered assaults weapons.”

The article focuses on the assault weapons ban that was launched in 1989, starting with military-style assault rifles and combat shotguns, including the ones with the round magazine like the old mobsters used to favor. Over the years, lawmakers have added additional weapons to the list of those banned. People who owned those added weapons were grandfathered in, but the state’s Department of Justice keeps a registry of all banned weapons.

[Related: California eases back on gun legislation]

The registry has 145,253 weapons, 2 percent of them shotguns, 9 percent of them handguns and the rest rifles.

The list gets technical when it breaks down these banned firearms by caliber/potency. Nearly half the state registry includes weapons with a caliber that is most favored by gun advocates for home safety, the .223 caliber.