California's raging abuse of gun rights
By Mike Luery
There is growing concern by gun owners in California about new legislation now moving through the state Capitol.
The package of 10 gun control bills, which opponents are calling "Gun-Megeddon," has firearms owners fearful of losing their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
"Gun-Megeddon is definitely coming to pass," said Craig DeLuz of the Firearms Policy Coalition.
One measure, SB 880, would make it illegal for gun owners to use a so-called "bullet button," a small tool allowing someone to quickly reload ammunition magazines. Another bill, SB 1446, would prohibit Californians from having high-capacity magazines, capable of shooting more than 10 rounds at a time.
"Not one of the laws that are being pushed today makes Californians safer," Deluz said. "All they do is put restrictions -- in many cases very unreasonable restrictions -- on law-abiding citizens."
"It doesn't affect criminals at all,” Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California said. “They are not affected by any of these bills that are making their way through the Legislature."
But gun control advocates argued that the "bullet button loophole" has been used to bypass California's ban on assault weapons. They cited last December's mass shooting in San Bernardino as a case in point.
"When two radicalized assailants used those bullet button weapons to shoot 36 people in a San Bernardino community building in a span of less than four minutes," said Ari Freilich of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Testifying on Tuesday in support of the ban on high-capacity magazines was Amanda Wilcox. Her daughter Laura Wilcox was gunned down by a deranged gunman in Nevada County in January 2001.
"This bill is very personal to me," Wilcox said. "Laura was killed by a gunman who had a 30-round magazine. He shot her four times at point-blank range, killing her instantly."
California's gun control measures are considered to be among the toughest in the nation. But are they truly making people safer?
Dr. Garen Wintemute, a violence prevention expert at UC Davis, said that no one really knows for sure.
"There's been far too little research done on firearm violence and far too little evaluative work done when laws are passed," Wintemute said.
Gun control advocates were successful in advancing eight of the 10 measures through committee votes Tuesday. Only one went down to defeat: AB 2459 would have required cameras to be installed at gun stores.
The 10th bill was put on hold until Wednesday.