By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Several new California gun control laws will take effect in 2025, signed by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, the man who has proposed a constitutional amendment designed primarily to gut the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to keep and bear arms.
KESQ News is reporting the following laws take effect next year:
AB 1598, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires gun dealers to provide safety pamphlets to people buying firearms. The pamphlets explain the reasons for and risks of owning a firearm. It was signed by Newsom Sept. 26, 2023.
AB 1483, also signed by Newsom in September 2023, becomes effective Jan. 1. It eliminates the “private party transaction exemption” from one-gun-a-month restriction. However, there is an injunction in place in a challenge to the restrictive law. In a Second Amendment Foundation case known as Nguyen v. Bonta, oral arguments were held before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco back in August.
AB 574, a third measure signed by Newsom in September 2023, becomes effective March 1, 2025.
Existing law requires each firearm dealer to keep a register or record of each firearm transaction and requires that register or record to include certain specified information, including information about the purchaser, information about the firearm, and the answers to certain questions by the purchaser or transferee relating to their eligibility to own or possess a firearm. This new statute requires the register or record to include the acknowledgment by the purchaser or transferee that they have, within the past 30 days, confirmed possession of every firearm that they own or possess.
AB 2917 , signed by Newsom this past Sept. 24, it deals with “gun violence restraining orders” and requires the court to consider recent threats of violence or acts of violence against another group or location when considering a restraining order to prevent someone from buying a gun or ammunition.
Newsom’s office in September issued a press release in which it outlined new laws and what they are supposed to accomplish.
PROTECT KIDS FROM GUNS by strengthening safe storage requirements and creating stricter penalties for gun owners whose guns are accessed by a child, resulting in death or injury to themselves or others. Strengthens safety measures to protect students during active threats.
PREVENT GUN-RELATED HATE CRIMES by building on California’s red flag laws and creating more training for law enforcement officers and courts to assess and identify extremism and potential for hate-based crimes, allowing more effective use of restraining orders.
SAFEGUARD VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE by creating more training and tools for child custody caseworkers and law enforcement officers to determine whether abusers may have access to guns.
PROVIDE MORE TOOLS TO KEEP GUNS OUT OF DANGEROUS HANDS by restricting animal abusers and persons found incompetent to stand trial from possessing firearms, as well as by strengthening California’s red flag laws.
INCREASE INFORMATION-SHARING TO CLOSE ENFORCEMENT GAPS by making it easier for California courts to ensure that people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others no longer have access to firearms.
