A new bill being announced this week in California would ban firearms dealers from holding “game-style promotional events” like lotteries, raffles, and giveaways, according to the Los Angeles Times. The legislation would add new misdemeanor convictions that would prohibit someone from owning a gun for 10 years.
The legislation, S.B. 368, would require firearms dealers and to store guns that are voluntarily turned in by gun owners who are at risk of suicide. In addition, the bill would require firearms dealers to create gun “buyback” programs to entice people to give up their weapons. Other provisions of the bill would add new misdemeanors to a list of crimes that prohibit convicted criminals from owning a gun for 10 years and would require the state Department of Justice to create an “evaluation system” to determine if the ban should be extended longer.
State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat from Burbank, California, authored the legislation, as well as other gun control laws in the Golden State. Portantino told the Times that the bill would “put responsibility on these businesses to be better stewards of public health if they’re going to be selling something that potentially is detrimental to public health.”
“We don’t need games of chance to attract new people into the gun world,” Portantino said of “game-style” gun store events. “If it’s detrimental to public health, should we really be giving freebies?”
California Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican and former California Highway Patrol officer, told the outlet that gun control measures don’t deter criminals.
“Once again, Democrats are focused on the wrong problem. The local gun shop throwing in a free box of bird shot when you buy a shotgun isn’t what’s driving California’s crime wave,” he said. “If we want to get serious about gun crime, we have to get serious about gun criminals.”
Last month, Townhall covered how San Jose, California will soon require firearm owners in the city to carry liability insurance for their guns. This requirement will be in place whether or not the person carries a firearm in public.
According to the Wall Street Journal. It mandates that gun owners in the city have insurance to cover costs related to “accidental gunshot injuries or deaths” and is the first of its kind. But, a poll from Fox 26 News found that 89 percent of respondents do not support gun owners being required to purchase liability insurance.