[ http://rkba.org/ca/sb15.19aug99.txt ] SB 15 passed the Assembly Thursday August 19th, 1999. It goes back to the Senate for concurrence then to the Governor. Governor Davis is expected to sign SB 15, which may be the last gun control bill he signs this year. According to Steve Helsley of NRA Sacramento, SB 15 permits retail sales only of handguns that have been submitted by their manufacturers for testing. No manufacturer is likely to submit guns no longer in production so it's likely that retail sales of used handguns (i.e. a large portion of the market) will be prohibited. For example, Colt would be unlikely to submit the Series 70 for testing, only their newer designs, so sale of most used "Colt .45s" would be prohibited. Manufacturers or countries that are no longer in business would also be unable to test so their used products could not be sold. Because the bill is poorly written certain designs would not pass testing at all, such as designs that do not have slide hold opens. This may also mean that new frames which carry serial numbers could not be sold since they don't have a slide hold open feature (since they have no slide). It also prohibits new guns with multiple barrels (i.e. Derringers) and single shot pistols. Curios and Relics (i.e. really old guns) are exempted. SB 15 was passed with the support of the current manufacturers since it would drive sales to new guns where they make the most direct profit. Here are the votes on SB 15 from the Assembly web page at http://www.assembly.ca.gov/ Some people to thank follow the roll call. VOTES - ROLL CALL MEASURE: SB 15 AUTHOR: Polanco TOPIC: Firearms. DATE: 08/19/1999 LOCATION: ASM. FLOOR MOTION: SB 15 POLANCO THIRD READING BY STEINBERG (AYES 44. NOES 27.) (PASS) AYES **** Alquist Aroner Calderon Cardenas Cedillo Corbett Correa Cunneen Davis Dutra Firebaugh Floyd Gallegos Havice Hertzberg Honda Jackson Keeley Knox Kuehl Lempert Longville Lowenthal Machado Mazzoni Migden Nakano Papan Reyes Romero Scott Shelley Soto Steinberg Strom-Martin Thomson Torlakson Vincent Washington Wayne Wesson Wiggins Wildman Villaraigosa NOES **** Ackerman Ashburn Baldwin Bates Battin Baugh Bock Briggs Cardoza Cox Dickerson Ducheny Florez Frusetta House Leonard Maldonado Margett McClintock Olberg Oller Robert Pacheco Pescetti Runner Strickland Wright Zettel ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING ********************************* Aanestad Brewer Campbell Granlund Kaloogian Leach Maddox Rod Pacheco Thompson Helsley says we should thank Rod Wright, Jim Battin, Rico Oller, George House and Dick Dickerson for sticking with us on this. He also suggested supporting Audie Bock for voting "no". Bock is the Assembly's only Green and voted no because she wants a total ban on handguns. However in voting no she criticized the Democrats for watering down the bill, so it's likely the Democrats will seek to punish her. With our support she may continue to vote down Democrat gun bills. (I argued to Steve this would be like thanking Joe MacNamara for opposing Roberti- Roos because it did not have a generic ban, but he says we want no votes on gun bills and sometimes the enemy of my enemy....) ONE KEY POINT Steve made is that we are only a few seats short in the legislature. Losing those few seats to Democrats really hurt us. I suggested he share election info with us come next November so we can send some resources to key elections. Jeff C.