California Must Amend Its Gun Laws

California approved one of the nation’s strictest laws to regulate assault weapons 26 years ago. This came about after the state suffered a long streak of mass shootings at fast food restaurants and schools. The law was amended to prevent people from carrying out this type of massacre using the power of automatic rifles.

Beyond the killers’ motives to commit mass murder, the recent San Bernardino events show that the law needs to be adjusted in order to avoid people from turning weapons into automatic war guns. Aiming to limit the amount of shots, specific models were forbidden and others were banned from using removable magazines. This is the type of rifle that was used in massacres such as the ones in Columbine, Sandy Hook and the Colorado movie theater.

The response of the weapons industry to the 1989 California regulation was along the lines of “every law has a loophole.” A reform was proposed to “fix,” for instance, AR-15 rifles, which were prevented from using detachable ammunition magazines, and thus allowing the weapon to continue being sold in the gigantic California gun market.

The problem is that anyone can easily alter their gun in order to change it back. A “bullet button” was added so that the user can switch it, not with a finger but by using the point of a bullet. The reform complies with the law that specifies that, if the lock gets stuck, a bullet can be used as a tool, according to a federal definition.

 But the spirit of the law is not being respected. The intention was to get the destructive power of an automatic rifle out of the hands of civilians, since the purpose of such war weapons is to kill quickly. These are not useful as sports guns.

 Senator Darrel Steinberg wanted to ban the “fixed” weapon in 2013 through bill SB374, but Governor Brown vetoed it. It is necessary to think about the community’s right to safety over their right to bear arms. The sale of fixable rifles must be banned. That is one of the lessons left by this massacre.