Hi Russ, don't sweat the spelling.
Here's what I know so far:
SB52, the Senate version, is currently a "handgun BUYER'S permit". If you simply keep the guns you have, there's no impact on you. In effect, it's a "souped up" version of the BFSE card. BUT, figure that both it and the Assembly version are in a state of flux.
The Sheriff's association is saying they're going to each need to dedicate a cop or two to the program, and the current fee structure of around $12 to the local department isn't going to *begin* to cover costs. We could be looking at up to 1,000 cops taken off the street to process this BS paperwork. Hence it's going to face one hell of a fight in the Appropriations committees. Those are our best shots at stopping it, not Davis.
Other issues: at present, the forms are only going to be available in English. Some NRA lobbyists testified at the Senate Safety Committee hearing in Japanese (Joel Friedman) and Spanish (Manny Hernandez) on that very point (I was there last week). Understand that California has a long history of racism in gun permits; racist elements of the CCW system have been stripped out in state court but all the way to present, CCW applications are in English only.
Driver's license applications are in 34 languages. Gee, what was that about "wanting to license guns like cars"?
Then there's logistics. At present, SF cops have to travel to Sacramento County to find enough range space to qualify and practice at. There's 700,000+ people in SF. If even 15% of them want the "buyer's permit", well gee, there's a grand total of one small indoor shooting range just south of the SF border.
With 12 lanes.
Now, I have to say there's a part of me that says "screw it - go ahead and pass this sucker, we'll gain politically from the chaos". This bill is really a "subset" of the CCW system in many ways...and it could be, WILL be, subject to many of the same abuses as CCW. Some towns are going to "declare zero-issuance" which will be illegal, some are going to jack the fees up to "cover costs" into some really crazy stuff...and because it'll affect more or less every handgun owner eventually, it won't be just a pissed-off handful of the "hardcore" getting screwed anymore.
See, the Dems don't have the votes to do an appropriations bill (2/3rds majority). They only have a bare majority, hence with no money in the system, all they can do is mandate that the local agencies lose their shirts. The PD Chief's Association leadership is stuffed with grabber morons such as Chief Todd of Los Gatos but there's a lot of other tops cops who can see a financial and legal tidal wave of raw sewage bearing down on 'em.
It's a recipe for a lawsuit feeding frenzy. And if such a brushfire breaks out all over, the lawyers will be looking at CCW abuses to show a "pre-existing pattern" of illegality that got transferred to the handgun buyer's card system but in fact goes back decades.
Anyways. Half of me is saying "Oh ****!" and the other half is wearing an evil grin and saying "what the hell, gun owners aren't quite totally united yet, go ahead and fix that, twits!".
The bill that has me even MORE concerned is the other Senate critter, I forget the number, that requires a mag disconnect safety and huge obvious loaded chamber indicator on all semi-autos. It seems they just changed it to "semi-auto HANDGUNS" versus rifles/shotguns too, but it could change back in a heartbeat. Either way, the "obvious even to a drunken teen" loaded chamber indicator is so tactically and practically unsound, it could drive ALL slidegun sales out of the state, and kill off the rest of the gun dealers.
Jim
