You Can Already Buy a Kit to Circumvent California’s Brand-New ‘Assault Weapon’ Law
7th July 2016
Markets work, even when some people don’t want them to, and even when some people try to stop them.
California, which in 1989 became the first state to ban so-called assault weapons, has expanded that category twice since then: in 1999, when the legislature added a generic definition to the original list of specifically proscribed models, and last week, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill aimed at a device that legally circumvented the ban. With the ink barely dry on the new law, another workaround is already available.
The 1999 law covered any semiautomatic centrefire rifle with a detachable magazine and any of six “military-style” features: 1) a flash suppressor, 2) a grenade launcher or flare launcher, 3) a thumbhole stock, 4) a folding or telescoping stock, 5) a forward pistol grip, or 6) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon. But regulations issued by the California Department of Justice defined “detachable magazine” as “any ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm with neither disassembly of the firearm action nor use of a tool being required.” The regulations specifically said “a bullet or ammunition cartridge is considered a tool,” which left the door open to “bullet buttons” that release the magazine when you insert a cartridge into them. Since guns with bullet buttons did not technically have detachable magazines, they could legally include the features that offended the sensibilities of California legislators.