The California Department of Justice is publishing new “assault weapons” regulations over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The regulations cover “assault weapons” definitions, which means they detail what the state considers an “assault weapon” based on certain cosmetic features and/or accessories.
The regulations are full of legalese and therefore use an exorbitant number of words to explain that AR-15s with “bullet buttons” will be officially banned as “assault weapons” moving forward:
Penal Code (PC) section 30515 specifies characteristics that identify a firearm as an assault weapon. Section 5471 of title 11, division 5, California Code of Regulations (CCR) further defines terms used in PC section 30515 to describe those characteristics, for the purpose of the requirement to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) a new class of assault weapons by stating assault weapons that do not have a fixed magazine, as defined in PC section 30515, including those weapons with an ammunition feeding device that can be readily removed from the firearm with the use of a tool, as provided in PC section 30900(b)(1).
The CA DOJ also used the regulatory publication to provide an official definition for certain gun and ammunition components, such as “barrel,” “bore,” “detachable magazine,” “bullet,” “threaded barrel,” and “thumbhole stock.” Although some of these items–barrels, for example–are not banned, the CA DOJ wants uniformity in definition so future bans rest on proper terminology.
The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) made clear they are not surprised that Attorney General Xavier Becerra used “11th-hour tactics to push [an] anti-gun agenda…right before a major holiday.” FPC attorneys are combing through the new regulations and announced that there will be a public hearing on those regs, including definitions, at “10 a.m. on January 8, 2018, at the Resources Building Auditorium in Sacramento.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. Heis also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]
