CA Assembly Passes Strongest Handgun Safety Bill
Requires "Loaded" Indicator and Magazine Disconnect Safety California Law Would Set National Standard Bill Has Already Passed Senate And Should Soon Reach Gov. Davis
Sacramento, California - The California Assembly today approved far-reaching gun control legislation, sponsored by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March, that would require handgun manufacturers to redesign new handguns to prevent accidental shootings, effectively establishing a new national safety standard for handgun production. The law would be the strongest such measure in the country.
The legislation establishes new safety standards by requiring handguns to have an indicator that clearly shows when the gun is loaded and a magazine disconnect safety that prevents the gun from firing when the ammunition magazine is removed. Senate Bill 489, by Senator Jack Scott, now goes to the Senate for a concurrence vote and is expected to soon reach Gov. Gray Davis.
"California will be the first state in the country to require handguns to clearly indicate if they are loaded and prevent them from firing if the ammunition magazine is removed," said Luis Tolley, Director of State Legislation for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March. "California is setting a national gun safety standard that will require manufacturers to change the way they design handguns to prevent accidental shootings. This bill will save lives all across America."
"If this bill had been law when a boy decided to show off a gun, my beloved son would be alive today," said Griffin Dix, Secretary of the Million Mom March California State Council, whose son was accidentally shot by a friend who did not realize the gun was loaded. "Deaths like my son’s are foreseeable and preventable. If a cheap disposable camera can tell us how many pictures are left, surely a handgun should indicate when there is a bullet still hidden in the chamber. Million Mom March chapters throughout California worked hard for this bill and legislators listened. Now, finally, hundreds of needless deaths and injuries will be prevented."
SB 489 requires new semiautomatic handgun models sold in California to have either a clear loaded-chamber indicator or a magazine disconnect safety by 2006 and to have both safety devices by 2007. Older models may continue to be sold in the state. Only one other state, Massachusetts, has enacted similar legislation, but Massachusetts only requires handguns to have one of the safety devices and has not established standards for the design of load indicators.