California lawmakers seek to require markings on BB guns

Alarmed by mistaken police shootings of teenagers, the state Senate on Thursday sent the governor a bill that would require BB and pellet guns sold in California to be marked with fluorescent colors.

The bill was in response to a 2013 fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy from Santa Rosa by Sonoma County deputies who mistook the plastic airsoft gun he was carrying for an actual AK-47.

The legislation was supported by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, whose department was involved in a 2010 shooting in Glassell Park that left a 13-year-old boy paralyzed. He was carrying an airsoft pistol, a replica of a Beretta handgun.

Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) cited one study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice that found more than 200 incidents each year involve imitation guns mistaken for real ones.

“Imitation guns don’t belong on the streets where they endanger children and teens as well as law enforcement officers,” de León told his colleagues.

Republicans including Sen. Jim Nielsen of Gerber said the bill would endanger the police. “The criminals in their ingenuity will be painting up all sorts of dangerous weapons,” Nielsen told de León.

The effective date of the legislation was delayed until Jan. 1, 2016, to allow manufacturers to adjust. It applies to airsoft guns that fire a BB or pellet that is six or eight mm in size.

The measure, SB 199, is opposed by the California Assn. of Firearms Retailers, the Outdoors Sportsmen’s Coalition of California and the National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc.

The foundation told lawmakers in a letter that it opposes the bill, in part, because “it is interference in interstate commerce. Most BB devices are manufactured outside of California.”

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