Shooting Test for Gun Buyers Clears Panel

One of the most significant gun control measures of the year in California, a bill requiring new handgun owners to pass a proficiency test, cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday despite opposition from the gun lobby.

The bill by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) moved out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 5-1 vote. It was contested by the National Rifle Assn., which argued that the test would discriminate against non-English speakers and subject prospective gun buyers to extra obstacles.

Backers of the legislation, AB 35, countered that it would stiffen what they characterized as flimsy current laws that allow people to purchase guns without demonstrating they know how to use them.

“This bill changes the existing law, which is: Grab a Coke, eat some popcorn, watch a video, wait 10 days and get a handgun,” Shelley said.

Safety Certificate Would Be Required

Under the bill, new handgun buyers would have to obtain a safety certificate from the state Department of Justice. To do so, they would have to attend a two- to four-hour course on handgun law and safety, then take a written test and, finally, fire a pistol in the presence of a department official.

New gun buyers would also have to submit a thumbprint, a requirement intended to foil attempts to purchase the weapons with fake identification. The bill would allow registration fees to increase as much as $50 to pay for maintaining the new standards.

The legislation “will increase safety and provide an important tool for law enforcement to enforce the law against criminals who are trying to buy guns,” said Luis Tolley, western director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Under current law, gun buyers pay $35 to register their weapons. They can choose to take a written test or watch a gun safety video at the point of sale, and they are required to wait 10 days before actually acquiring the gun. No fingerprinting is required.

Gov. Gray Davis called for a moratorium on new gun control laws in 2000 after signing a spate of such bills his first year in office, but he has indicated that he may be willing to approve new gun legislation this year. He has also expressed concern that gun buyers may be required to visit too many agencies, placing extra work on local law enforcement, an aide to Shelley said.

Shelley, however, contends that his bill can be implemented without taxing the resources of local police. He said a likely solution would be to place devices in gun dealerships that can read the magnetic strips on the back of driver’s licenses, scan thumbprints and cross-check the data with state-maintained records.

Davis spokesman Roger Salazar said the governor would like to see how the initial batch of laws works for a while before signing new bills into law.

“That said,” Salazar added, “he has not closed the door to any new legislation, as he did last year.”

Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena), a familiar gun control advocate in the Capitol, has written a bill similar to Shelley’s that also is making its way through the Legislature. Shelley said the two bills will probably merge as the legislative session draws to a close in August.

Under either bill, the proposed test would be available in English or Spanish, as the current written test is. But an NRA representative told the committee that two language options are not enough.

“If you have 34 languages for the driver’s test” in California, “it seems only fair you have 34 languages on the test to buy a handgun,” said NRA lobbyist Ed Worley.

Worley also expressed concern that the bill fails to specify where a prospective handgun owner would be able to provide a thumbprint and fire a gun. Gun lobbyists contend that making gun buyers go into police or sheriff’s stations to register for the weapons would dissuade some from completing the process.