By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times
6:18 PM PST, January 29, 2013
SACRAMENTO — California authorities are empowered to seize weapons owned by convicted felons and people with mental illness, but staff shortages and funding cuts have left a backlog of more than 19,700 people to disarm, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.
Those gun owners have roughly 39,000 firearms, said Stephen Lindley, chief of the Bureau of Firearms for the state Department of Justice, testifying at a joint legislative hearing. His office lacks enough staff to confiscate all the weapons, which are recorded in the state's Armed Prohibited Persons database, he said.
The gun owners typically acquired the firearms legally, before being convicted of a felony or diagnosed with mental illness. Each year, the state investigates and seizes the guns of about 2,000 people on the Armed Prohibited Persons list, Lindley said, but each year about 3,000 names are added to the list.
"Despite our best efforts, the bureau does not have the funding or resources to keep up with this annual influx," he told the 15 assembled lawmakers.
The testimony showed how some of the state's strict gun laws have been undermined by California's budget problems. Lindley said it would cost $25 million to hire enough staff to clear the backlog within three years.
Lawmakers are considering a dozen proposals to curb gun violence after last month's Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Conn.
(Article edited for space...entire article available at link below)
[email protected]
Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times
End of article...my comments follow...
Since they don’t have the money or manpower to enforce the gun laws they have, they need to pass more…no wonder California is morally and financially bankrupt.
The real point of posting this article is this: I think this can be a good example for us to use to show the laws we have are sufficient if the government would enforce them. In California there are 20,000 known felons and mentally ill with guns and that number is increasing by 1,000 a year, but the state wants to tax ammo and impose more restrictions on lawful gun owners instead. And, when one of those 20,000 felons kills someone we will see new media outrage against some "type" of gun or some "high capacity" magazine.
I have already emailed the article to a number of anti-gun people and my representatives. the link to the article is below, and there is a button to use if you want to email the article to someone who should see it.
California unable to disarm 19,700 felons and mentally ill people - latimes.com
6:18 PM PST, January 29, 2013
SACRAMENTO — California authorities are empowered to seize weapons owned by convicted felons and people with mental illness, but staff shortages and funding cuts have left a backlog of more than 19,700 people to disarm, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.
Those gun owners have roughly 39,000 firearms, said Stephen Lindley, chief of the Bureau of Firearms for the state Department of Justice, testifying at a joint legislative hearing. His office lacks enough staff to confiscate all the weapons, which are recorded in the state's Armed Prohibited Persons database, he said.
The gun owners typically acquired the firearms legally, before being convicted of a felony or diagnosed with mental illness. Each year, the state investigates and seizes the guns of about 2,000 people on the Armed Prohibited Persons list, Lindley said, but each year about 3,000 names are added to the list.
"Despite our best efforts, the bureau does not have the funding or resources to keep up with this annual influx," he told the 15 assembled lawmakers.
The testimony showed how some of the state's strict gun laws have been undermined by California's budget problems. Lindley said it would cost $25 million to hire enough staff to clear the backlog within three years.
Lawmakers are considering a dozen proposals to curb gun violence after last month's Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Conn.
(Article edited for space...entire article available at link below)
[email protected]
Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times
End of article...my comments follow...
Since they don’t have the money or manpower to enforce the gun laws they have, they need to pass more…no wonder California is morally and financially bankrupt.
The real point of posting this article is this: I think this can be a good example for us to use to show the laws we have are sufficient if the government would enforce them. In California there are 20,000 known felons and mentally ill with guns and that number is increasing by 1,000 a year, but the state wants to tax ammo and impose more restrictions on lawful gun owners instead. And, when one of those 20,000 felons kills someone we will see new media outrage against some "type" of gun or some "high capacity" magazine.
I have already emailed the article to a number of anti-gun people and my representatives. the link to the article is below, and there is a button to use if you want to email the article to someone who should see it.
California unable to disarm 19,700 felons and mentally ill people - latimes.com
