Veto AB 1903!
I stand with the Firearms Policy Coalition in opposition to this bill. Assembly Bill 1903 (AB 1903) would, for purposes of a voluntary firearms buyback program, as defined, prohibit a city, city and county, county, or the state, in exchange for a firearm, from dispensing a gift card whose issuer is a seller of goods or services that holds a firearms dealer’s license or an ammunition vendor license. Obviously, this measure is intended to expressly discriminate against only law-abiding California small businesses that take extraordinary measures to comply with an incredible number of complex federal, state, and local laws on the commercial sales of firearms—businesses which are necessary for Californians to lawfully access and exercise their fundamental constitutional rights. Somewhat ironically, the State’s list of licensed firearm dealers and ammunition vendors are not public records, contain confidential information about individuals (as corporations are not licensed by the State), and may not be accessed by persons unless specifically authorized under the statutes. Penal Code § 28475; Cal. Const. Art. I, Sec. 1. Thus, “firearms buyback” organizers would have no lawful mechanism to verify if the gift cards they would provide in exchange for voluntarily-surrendered firearms are those of “a seller of goods or services that holds a firearms dealer’s license . . . or an ammunition vendor license [ ].” Moreover, the bill’s express text would apply the new restriction exclusively to an “exchange for a firearm” – thus allowing the otherwise proscribed gift cards to be exchanged for items that are not firearms – e.g., firearm parts and magazines, ammunition, or even used (and non-reusable) AT4 unguided anti-tank weapon launcher tubes, as are sometimes amusingly turned in at some gun buyback events . Indeed, AB 1903 (and the Legislature) altogether misses the bigger picture about firearms buyback programs: These events actually undermine public safety and California’s more than 5,000 criminal laws , and allow violent criminals and murderers to not only dispose of evidence (i.e., guns used in crime) but in most cases get paid for doing as much with no questions asked. In California, violent criminals and murderers can simply walk up to a firearm buyback event, and, with no questions asked, hand over firearms—firearms that they may not own, may have stolen, may not lawfully possess, may have used in serious crimes, etc.—without any fear of being identified, investigated, or prosecuted by law enforcement. That just doesn’t make sense. The perverse incentives created by no-questions-asked buybacks are not only counter-productive—they are irrational. And so is AB 1903. Assembly Bill 1903 is a discriminatory bill that does not advance public safety at all. And it walks right past the real issues of firearm buybacks to take a political cheap shot at licensed California gun dealers and their customers. The bill doesn’t make sense. Therefore, I urge you to veto AB 1903.
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