‘Assault Weapon’ Requirements Withdrawn by California DOJ

California’s Department of Justice has repealed “assault weapon” regulations it had submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for the purposes of enactment without public comment.

The NRA and the California Pistol and Rifles Association sent a letter to the DOJ which pointed out “flaws in the regulations” and pledged legal action if the regulations were not withdrawn.

According to NRA-ILA, “It is unclear exactly why the DOJ [recalled the regulations], however it can be surmised that the NRA-CRPA legal letter likely prompted the move.

NRA-ILA previously reported that the regulations were an attempt to piggy back more “assault weapon” requirements on the back of expanded “assault weapon” ban rules signed by Governor Jerry Brown (D) in July 2016. “The regulations were submitted to OAL as ‘File and Print’ only, meaning DOJ [claimed] that the regulations [were] expressly exempted by statute from public comment or OAL review.”

The regulations were compiled in a way that read “like a wish list” for gun control advocates. The regulations included:

Excessive personal information requirements for registering a firearm, requirements that individuals provide information on where they acquired their firearms, requirements that individuals provide DOJ with photos of their firearms, requirements for serializing firearms built from 80% receivers, expansion of the “assault weapon” definition to bullet-button equipped shotguns, and restrictions on removing the “bullet-button” once the firearm is registered as an “assault weapon.”

But the regulations have now been recalled. The prospect of a defending them in a pro-gun legal climate overseen by Attorney General Jeff Sessions was not appealing.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com