SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California’s gun laws, already some of the strictest in the nation, will get even more stringent next year.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed onto much of the gun-control agenda advocated by legislative Democrats, who are clamoring to crack down in the wake of high-profile mass shootings including last year’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino.
The Democratic governor signed six bills Friday requiring gun owners to give up magazines holding more than 10 rounds and to undergo a background check before they can purchase ammunition, among other measures.
While he vetoed five bills—including a one-gun-per-month purchase limit—he endorsed the most ambitious pieces of the Legislature’s gun control push over the roar of gun-rights advocates frustrated by the increasing weight of restrictions.
“Independence and freedom and liberty in California has been chopped down at the knees and kicked between the legs,” said Sam Paredes, executive director of the advocacy group Gun Owners of California.
Brown’s actions are consistent with his mixed record on gun control. Some of the enacted bills duplicate provisions of a November ballot measure by Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Some of the vetoed measures also appear in Newsom’s initiative, giving voters a chance to overturn Brown’s veto and protecting the initiative from becoming moot.
“My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Brown wrote in a one-sentence message to lawmakers.
