STATE : Longer Arms Registration Asked
In a surprise move, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren today asked lawmakers to extend the registration period for assault weapons and Senate leader David A. Roberti agreed to introduce legislation within a week.
The Department of Justice has logged 13,375 applications for registration that were received before the Dec. 31 deadline and has several thousand more to process, said Kati Corsaut, a spokeswoman for the department’s division of law enforcement.
But that falls far short of California’s estimated 200,000 to 300,000 assault weapons, which lawmakers banned from sale and allowed to legally stay in the hands of only those owners who registered them. The action came after a gunman used one of the weapons to kill five Stockton schoolchildren at play in 1989 before killing himself.
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