CA Assembly Considers Broadening ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

On March 1, the California Assembly will consider legislation limiting rifle or shotgun purchases to one per month, and another bill broadening the state’s “assault weapons” ban.

Two other gun control bills are also slated for consideration.

The legislation limiting rifle or shotgun purchases to one per month was put forward by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) on January 16. Breitbart News previously reported that handgun purchases are already limited to one per month in California, but Santiago wants to broaden the limitation so as to limit law-abiding citizens’ ability to purchase rifles or shotguns as well.

Santiago’s motivation is the December 2 the San Bernardino terror attack, which he contends demonstrated the danger of “stockpiling” weapons. However, San Bernardino attackers Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik only had two rifles, which is not much of a stockpile. CNBC reported Farook and Malik “left behind 12 pipe bombs” in their apartment, which is a far greater stockpile than the two rifles, but one that is not addressed in Santiago’s bill.

KQED reports that the bill expanding the state’s “assault weapons” ban–which will also be considered March 1–is also being pushed because of the San Bernardino attack. Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) believes the state’s allowance for the use of an external tool or pointed object to remove empty magazines and replace them with full ones needs to be changed. He says the ability to change magazines this way–often done with by using the tip of a bullet to depress what is commonly called a “bullet button”–increases a criminal’s ability to kill.

Levine says that with the “bullet button,” a criminal can “go from one ten-clip magazine to another one, so that shooters can fire more bullets.”

The solution? Make sure law-abiding citizens cannot have “bullet buttons,” either.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.