Lawmaker Pushing Bill to Let Californians Bar Themselves from Purchasing Firearms

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) is pushing a new gun control bill designed to enable Californians to bar themselves from purchasing firearms.

The bill, AB1927, is presented as a way that people with suicidal thoughts can take away the option of acquiring a firearm with which to carry out their intentions.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bonta’s bill comes despite the fact that California has a 10-day waiting period for firearm sales. That waiting period was ubiquitously put in place to prevent people from acquiring firearms with which to impulsively harm themselves or others. But Bonta pointed to a study which indicated Californians who take their own lives are simply doing so in the first week after the gun purchase is finalized.

Under Bonta’s bill, Californians who bar themselves from gun purchases would be able to recover their Second Amendment rights by demonstrating “they were no longer a danger to themselves or others.” He did not say what such a demonstration would entail.

Gabby Giffords’ gun control group cheered Bonta’s bill, saying, “We support legislation that would empower people struggling with suicidal urges to promote their own health and safety in moments of calm and clarity by voluntarily adding their names to confidential gun background-check databases for a temporary period.”

In addition to a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases California has an “assault weapons” ban, universal background checks, gun registration requirements, gun confiscation laws, Gun Violence Protection Orders, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, ammunition controls, and a soon-to-be requirement that all ammunition buyers pass a point-of-sale background check for a box of bullets. Despite these and numerous other controls, Bonta believes California needs another gun law.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.