California Gov. Gavin Newsom is no friend of gun owners. He's not much of a friend to California, if we're being honest. Right now, he's busy with podcasting and trying to set himself up as both the sensible center and the next poster child of the DSA. You can't have both, but he's trying, and he's doing it while supposedly being governor.
But with a slew of gun control bills needing to be signed by last night, I waited to see what happened, figuring everything would get signed.
So far, though, we don't know.
What are we looking at?
- AB 2047 — 3D-printer controls. This one would restrict the sale or transfer of 3D printers unless they include a state-approved "firearm blueprint detection" capability designed to block known gun files. It also creates penalties for knowingly helping defeat that system. We've covered this one aplenty, including the sparring between Kathy Hochul and Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson over the latter's attempt to defeat these.
- AB 1974 — voluntary firearm storage. This one sounds good on the surface, but it's not. It allows law-enforcement agencies to operate voluntary storage programs, and has been pitched primarily for people going through mental-health crises. Sounds good, right? Well, big gun-rights concern here is what happens when someone wants the gun back: California’s existing firearm-release procedures can turn “temporary” surrender into a bureaucratic mess. Unless that's streamlined somehow, this isn't going to make anything better.
- AB 1753 — expands the red flag framework to ammunition. This bill explicitly subjects ammunition possession to the hearing/enforcement machinery already applied to firearms under California’s red-flag system. In other words, it closes what anti-gunners characterize as a loophole in red flag enforcement. Because ammo is notorious for just going off without a firearm to fire it, apparently. It seems like the clamoring for this one is an admission that the red flag law doesn't do jack.
- SB 948 — mandatory FSC training/live fire. Beginning in 2029, obtaining California’s Firearm Safety Certificate would require at least four hours of prescribed training, including live-fire instruction with this bill. We've talked extensively about this one, including why requiring training is blatantly unconstitutional and more than a little hypocritical coming from a state full of people who don't want to require an ID to vote, but training to own a firearm.
- SB 1220 — new 10-year prohibition on gun ownership. This bill would add a conviction for possessing/selling/transferring/dealing in a firearm whose identifying marks or serial number have been altered to California’s list of misdemeanors that trigger a 10-year firearms prohibition. The conduct is already criminal. If someone is willing to carry a gun that has altered serial numbers in the first place, don't you think they're willing to get a gun illegally?
- AB 1743 — expands access to gun-owner data. Broadens who can access information in California’s Automated Firearms System and related firearm databases. Given California DOJ’s previous disclosure of gun-owner/CCW information, that's a problem. A big one. Plus, we all know this access is going to be used to do nothing more than create more anti-gun propaganda.
There's also a bill to create a new office addressing "gun violence" prevention, which will just be a state jobs program for anti-gunners, but since this is California, there's literally no chance of us even noticing. Hell, I thought they already had one.
The fact that there's no official word on these measures as of this writing doesn't necessarily mean much. If he signed them at midnight PT. There may not have been time for the news to generate. We'll update if more information becomes available, and I think there will be. I just don't see the guy who proposed a gun-control amendment to the Constitution leaving gun control on the table. Not with primary campaign season coming up next year.
