State Begins Campaign for Assault-Gun Registration

The state Department of Justice on Tuesday began a publicity campaign aimed at giving owners of legally acquired assault weapons a second chance to register their firearms during a 90-day amnesty period starting Jan. 1.

As a first step in a proposed wide-ranging program, the department installed a toll-free line (800-499-GUNS) to handle inquiries and issued a bulletin to every police chief, sheriff and district attorney in California detailing the Jan. 1 to March 31 registration grace period from prosecution.

In an attempt to obtain compliance with the widely disregarded registration feature of California’s 1989 landmark ban on certain military-style semiautomatic firearms, the department also will alert gun owners through public service announcements and posters in gun shops.

The extraordinary action is being taken as the department struggles to enforce the first-in-the-nation statute outlawing the possession of about 60 types of semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns unless they have been legally acquired and registered.

The measure, sponsored by law enforcement executives and opposed by gun owners, was enacted in the wake of the 1989 slaying of five children in a Stockton schoolyard by a gunman firing a legally purchased civilian version of an AK-47 assault rifle.

The law gave gun owners a year, ending last Dec. 31, to register their assault weapons or face charges of possessing an illegal firearm. Only 24,553 registration forms were submitted by the deadline, although the department still accepts late filers. No one knows how many guns are subject to registration in California, but official and unofficial estimates put the number between 300,000 and 600,000.

Some owners claimed they did not know or forgot about the deadline, were rebuffed by police when they tried to register or simply refused to comply as an act of civil disobedience.

Faced with massive noncompliance, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren sponsored legislation granting a second chance, 90-day period of “forgiveness” for owners of assault weapons that were legally acquired before June 1, 1989. Gov. Pete Wilson signed the legislation into law last month.

In an attempt to correct typographical and other flaws on the original banned list, which Lungren said made the law unenforceable, the new law also had the effect of adding about 10 other guns to the list. These too will be subject to registration during the amnesty.

The revised law also empowers the attorney general to ban other previously legal semiautomatics if he determines they are variations of the prohibited “AK” series of weapons or the Colt AR15 series, regardless of their manufacturer.