Assault weapon registrations up 43 percent under new law

SACRAMENTO – Assault weapons registered in California have increased by 43 percent under a new law that expanded the types of firearms gun owners must log with the state.

Californians have applied to register 68,848 additional assault weapons in the last 11 months to comply with a state law enacted following the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino.

The 2016 law bans sales of semiautomatic assault rifles equipped with “bullet buttons,” which have detachable magazines that enable quick replacement of ammunition, and requires old ones to be registered with the California Department of Justice by the end of June. The mandate should allow law enforcement to better track the weapons.

Shooters used such semi-automatic rifles in the terrorist attack in San Bernardino that left 14 dead and 24 injured, and a 2013 shooting at Los Angeles International Airport that left a TSA agent dead and three others wounded.

“Registration is a common sense accountability measure to track weapons that can be used for great harm to society,” said Democratic Assemblyman Marc Levine, who coauthored the law.

Gun owners caught with unregistered “bullet button” rifles face up to a year in jail and confiscation of the firearm.

Firearm registration helps law enforcement determine when assault weapons are in the hands of people ineligible to own them because they have been convicted of a crime or diagnosed with serious mental illness, said Amanda Wilcox, policy chairwoman of the California chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

“If someone legally acquired a bullet button weapon when they are allowed and then they subsequently become prohibited, we want to make sure that they are disarmed,” said Wilcox, whose daughter was killed by gun violence.

A lawsuit filed against the state by firearms groups, who campaigned against the new law, alleged some gun owners were unable to access the state web site to register their guns before the deadline.