Lungren SKS letter
Anonymous
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 17:05:52 -0800
From: Carolyn Hart <cdh...@laurie.net>
Following is the actual text of a letter sent out by California Attorney
General Dan Lungren's office. I have retyped it--please excuse any
errors!
Carolyn
**********************
November 24, 1997
Re: Assault Weapons
Dear _____________:
In the past, you contacted this office concerning the legal status of
the SKS rifle. We appreciate your inquiry. Because of questions and
comments received from you and others, the Department of Justice has
undertaken further review of the statute.
Penal Code section 12276 provides that the term "assault weapon" shall
include the "SKS with detachable magazine." The clear reading of the
statute is to render any SKS with a detachable magazine an assault
weapon. The statute does not make any distinction between a gun
purchased with a detachable magazine and a gun converted to accommodate
a detachable magazine. By contrast, it should be noted that the SKS
with a ten round fixed magazine is not an assault weapon.
Thus, anyone in the state of California who has purchased an SKS with a
detachable magazine, or converted an SKS with a fixed magazine to one
with a detachable magazine, is in possession of an assault weapon. This
is an illegal weapon unless and until it is registered. If the owner of
the firearm can prove that he or she possessed it prior to June 1, 1989,
it may be registered with the Department of Justice using the attached
Assault Weapons Registration form. Otherwise, any SKS with a detachable
magazine is an illegal weapon and must be relinquished to a local police
or sheriff's department. If the latter course of action is pursued,
this letter should be in the possession of those seeking to relinquish
the weapon. We strongly suggest that anyone intending to relinquish
such a weapon should contact the appropriate local law enforcement
agency for specific guidance in this matter.
Again, thank you for contacting this office concerning the SKS rifle.
Hopefully, this further clarifies the current state of the law in
California.
Sincerely,
DANIEL E. LUNGREN
Attorney General
RANDY C. ROSSI, Assistant Chief
Bureau of Criminal Information and Analysis
P. O. Box 903387
Sacramenta, CA 94203-3870
.
And anyone that registers their newly defined "assault weapon" may be
subject to prosecution for failing to meet the registration deadline. A
gun grabber group is taking the Attorney General to court for failure to
prosecute gun owners attempting to register their firearms after the
stated deadline. Owners of unregistered "assault weapon" are screwed if
they don't file the paperwork and they are screwed if they do fiel the
paperwork. Even if the gun owners are not prosecuted for missing the
deadline, they are providing the gungrabbers more misleading numbers to
lie about.
An Example of what the gun grabber and media have already said: The
Attorney General has failed to enforce the gun ban by not prosecuting
the 100 individuals who failed to comply with the law in a timely
matter. Any inefficiencies and short-comings of this law are all caused
by the failure to enforce it.
But the truth is, as stated above, that the definition of "assault
weapon" has once again changed to include an even greater number of
weapons.