California to set new time frame for assault weapon registration

SACRAMENTO — California will give gun owners more time to register their legal assault weapons under a settlement announced on Thursday over what critics charged was the state’s botched registration system in 2018.

The settlement with the state attorney general’s office means no owners will be held liable for missing the July 1, 2018, registration deadline. The state will eventually provide a new 90-day window to register the guns after a new hearing and notification process.

Gunowners rights’ groups sued the state Department of Justice alleging that its system for registering so-called bullet-button assault weapons was unavailable for most of the week before the deadline.

The bullet buttons allow users to rapidly exchange ammunition magazines on an assault-style weapon by using a small tool or the tip of a bullet.

The Calguns Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition and Firearms Policy Foundation argued the faulty registration website left owners who were unable to register by the deadline potentially vulnerable to prosecution through no fault of their own.

The settlement applies only to those who legally owned the “bullet button” weapons at the time and tried but failed to register them because of technical difficulties.

“We’ve always believed that this was about giving gun owners a reasonable opportunity to comply with the law and not be made felons at the stroke of midnight because the State couldn’t operate a website,” one of their attorneys, George M. Lee, said in a statement.