Mar 19, 2008 12:34 am US/Pacific
Loopholes Allow High-Powered Guns Into California
Linda Yee, Reporting
OAKLAND (CBS 5) ―
Assault weapons are banned in California, but police say they are confiscating more and more high-powered guns on the streets these days, due to several legal loopholes.
"I'd say you're more likely to be hit by a stray round nowadays than an intended round," said Special Agent Ignatius Chinn of the California Department of Justice. His concern: the proliferation of assault weapons on city streets.
Marilyn Harris of Oakland says that's frustrating, but hardly surprising to her.
"We're at war. We're the untalked about war," Harris said.
Harris started a group for parents who have lost children to gun violence. It's named the Khadafy Foundation, after her 18 year old son who was shot and killed the day before he was supposed to enter college.
"We've always known it's easier for children to get a weapon, than it is to get sometime a decent meal," Harris said.
Assault weapons are banned in California. But they're still showing up here because the cops say there is no federal ban.
"They call these choppers on the street, for one reason: because they chop people up," said Kevin Kaney of the Oakland Police. "These are designed to take as much casualties as possible."
Kaney said many illegal assault weapons also get in to California because loopholes in state law are being exploited. Same design, same firepower, just a few cosmetic changes.
For example, having a push-button detachable magazine on certain guns makes them an assault weapon. Some gun makers get around the law by replacing it with a push button that requires a tool. That change classifies it as a fixed magazine and therefore legal.
Police say that is not the spirit of the law.
"I can use a knife, or pen to, basically, to push the button internally, and the magazine falls out," Chinn showed to CBS 5.
Assault gun parts are sold legally on the Internet and at gun stores. Irvington Arms of Fremont warns customers with a disclaimer on its website: "It is your responsibility to configure your rifle properly in accordance with California law; Irvington Arms is not responsible if you build or alter a complete rifle into an illegally configured assault weapon."
Another loophole is a name change. Gun makers often knockoff the banned weapon and re-name it.
"The industry is very, very adjustable," Chinn said.
At first, California law listed only a few weapons by name. Now there are 75 on the list.
"We are not going to play this name game," said Chinn, "…and we will take them on as they come, case by case."
But prosecuting the cases can be challenging because some question how the law describes what exactly an assault weapon is. Recently, illegal possession charges against a student in Los Angeles were dropped when the prosecutors made a deal to just confiscate his weapons.
"It's unwinnable," said Harris, whose son's murder eight years later, remains unsolved. She says disputes these days are too easily settled with a gun.
"I'll just end that person's life so I don't have to deal with him. They were in my space so I'll get rid of him. Is that not a cry for help?" Harris asked.
CBS 5 contacted major gun manufacturers. Two of them responded, Colt and Winchester said they do not sell illegal weapons or gun parts to California buyers. And they said they do not condone, but can not stop, the gunsmiths who do sell parts that make illegal weapons over the internet to California buyers.
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