The California DOJ is using a countdown clock to warn residents they have less than a week to register “bullet button assault weapons.”
“Bullet buttons” are simple mechanisms which a gun owner can depress using a tool–or the tip of a bullet–in order to achieve the release of an empty magazine. The empty mag can thereby be replaced with a full one. But California Democrats are working hard to eliminate detachable magazines, thus the ban on “bullet button assault weapons.”
Breitbart News reported the Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the ban on “bullet buttons” on July 1, 2016, and the effective date of that law is now approaching.
This CA DOJ explains:
Pursuant to Assembly Bill 1135 (Stats. 2016, ch. 40) and Senate Bill 880 (Stats. 2016, ch. 48) effective January 1, 2017, the definition of assault weapon is revised.
These bills require that any person who, from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2016, inclusive, lawfully possessed an assault weapon that does not have a fixed magazine, as defined in Penal Code section 30515, including those weapons with an ammunition feeding device that can be readily removed from the firearm with the use of a tool, shall register the firearm before January 1, 2018, but not before the effective date of the regulations adopted by the DOJ.
The “effective date” is July 1, 2018. Which means “assault weapons registration ends at 11:59:59 pm on June 30, 2018.”
It should be noted that there is an extra step for any individual who possesses a firearm manufactured at home via an 80 percent lower. If a gun owner possesses such a firearm, he “must obtain a DOJ-issued serial number by completing form BOF 1008 and emailing it to DOJSerialNumber@doj.ca.gov.” A serial number has to be secured before the firearm can be registered before the law’s effective date of July 1, 2018.
The ban on “bullet buttons” is only the latest in a litany of California gun controls. California requires would-be gun purchasers to obtain a firearm safety certificate from the state before purchasing a firearm, then requires a 10-day waiting period on firearm purchases. They limit handgun purchases to one a month, have universal background checks, limit concealed carry permit issuance to Californians who can show “good cause,” and completely ban campus carry or concealed carry by law-abiding teachers on K-12 campuses.
Moreover, on January 1 Breitbart News reported that California ushered in 2018 with ammunition control. These controls limit lawful ammunition purchases to in-state sellers who have state approval to sell ammunition. A caveat is that online purchases can still be made, as long as those purchases are sent directly to an approved in-state dealer who then adds a fee to the ammunition before the buyer picks it up.
California residents will have to pass a background check to buy a box of bullets beginning January 1, 2019.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, 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.