California bills to target ‘ghost guns,’ revenge porn

SACRAMENTO -- It is still nearly three weeks before state lawmakers return to session, but some on Tuesday previewed the bills they plan to introduce, including measures involving revenge porn, ghost guns and oil taxes.

Sen. Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) said he would propose a bill to close a loophole in this year’s new law prohibiting revenge porn. The term is used to describe cases where men and women in bitter breakups post nude photos of their exes on the Internet to embarrass them.

Cannella’s proposed new bill would extend the prohibition to “selfies,” in which men or women photograph themselves while undressed and then send them to their significant other.

“I recognized that more could be done to protect a larger number of victims so I will present new legislation this upcoming session so the law will apply to anyone who distributes revenge porn regardless of who took the photo,” Cannella said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Sens. Noreen Evans of Santa Rosa and Mark DeSaulnier of Concord plan to introduce a new bill to tax oil pumped from the ground in California on a sliding scale of from 2% to 8%, with some of the money going to reduce tuition for those attending state universities.

Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) announced that he would introduce legislation to ban the sale, manufacture, purchase and trafficking of so-called ghost guns, including plastic firearms and other homemade guns that are not otherwise registered.

De Leon is concerned about the invention of 3-D printers that can make guns out of materials that do not show up on metal detectors.

“The threat of plastic and self-assembled firearms should not be underestimated,” De Leon said. “There is an emerging industry and market for untraceable and undetectable ghost guns.”

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patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com