New law raises age to buy rifles in California
SACRAMENTO — Seven months after a teenage gunman killed 17 people at a Florida high school, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a stack of gun control bills Friday, including a proposal that raises the minimum age for buying rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21.
The Democratic governor followed the lead of Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who in March signed into law a bill raising the minimum age for buying long guns.
Brown also signed into law on Friday measures that impose lifetime firearm bans on people convicted of serious domestic violence charges, as well as those who have been hospitalized more than once in a year for mental health problems. He also enacted laws that will make it easier for police officers and family members to have guns taken away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, and to require concealed gun permit applicants to complete at least eight hours of gun safety training and demonstrate competency with a live-fire exam.
He vetoed a measure Friday that would have limited people to purchasing no more than one rifle or shotgun in any 30-day period.
Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino of La Canada Flintridge authored the California version of the law limiting long gun purchases to those 21 and older, which takes effect Jan. 1.
In arguing for the change, Portantino said he was moved by the grief of survivors and family members of victims after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a 19year-old is accused of using a semiautomatic rifle to kill students and school employees.
“I was determined to help California respond appropriately to the tragic events our country has recently faced on high school campuses,” Por- tantino said Friday. “No parent should have to worry that a gun gets in the wrong hands and commits a heinous and violent tragedy on our school campuses.”
The governor declined to comment.
The National Rifle Association fought the proposal to raise the age limit for purchasing guns, which expands a previously approved law limiting handgun purchases to those 21 and older in California.
“We will continue to oppose gun control measures that only serve to punish law abiding citizens,” said NRA State Director Daniel Reid in a letter to lawmakers before they sent the measure to the governor.
The NRA filed a lawsuit hours after Florida’s law was signed, arguing it violated the Second Amendment right to possess firearms. The NRA did not immediately say whether it plans to challenge the California law in court.