The State Senator of California, Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada-Flintridge) wants the state to only allow residents to be able to buy just one gun per month. Current law limits handgun purchases at one per month but the Senator wants to also include long guns.
“This is not the Wild West,” Portantino said. “California’s in the 21st century, and you shouldn’t be able to walk into a gun store and come out with an arsenal. The bill is a way of saying, ‘People, be reasonable, take a timeout.’ We should not have such a proliferation of weapons out in main street California.”
Portantino believes that if the bill is passed, it would reduce the number of instances where people purchase guns and sell them to people who are ineligible to buy them.
“About half of the guns seized by state Department of Justice agents from people ineligible to own them are long guns,” he said.
This is another weak attempt at stopping what is referred to as a “straw purchase.” It is already illegal to buy a gun for somebody who is ineligible to buy one on his own and it will not reduce straw sales because people who do this already don’t follow the law.
“Portantino’s bill “does not prevent straw purchasers from breaking the law,” Sam Peredes of Gun Owners of California said. “They are only passing laws that affect law-abiding citizens. This doesn’t affect criminals.”
Neigh-sayers believe this legislation is taking control of Second Amendment rights and Portantino’s bill is just another attempt for the government to dictate the number of guns a person can buy each month. This bill would correlate with others gun control measures that have passed, such as universal background checks and gun confiscation laws.
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