SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) today introduced Assembly Bill 334 – The Lost and Stolen Firearm Notification Act – which is designed to provide law enforcement agencies with better information regarding the ownership of handguns in order to prevent gun trafficking in California.

“Requiring notification of lost and stolen firearms is the single most effective way to prevent those who are not legally allowed to own a gun from obtaining one,” Assemblymember Levine said. “More than one-quarter of all guns connected with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigations of illegal gun trafficking were reported to have been stolen.  Requiring a gun owner to promptly report gun thefts to police – as some states already do – allows for the prosecution of individuals who illegally sell guns to criminals.”

AB 334 would require a handgun owner to report to a local law enforcement agency a stolen or irretrievably lost handgun within five working days of the discovery. In addition, the bill mandates that firearm dealers must post a sign warning that any person who fails to report the lost or theft of a handgun to law enforcement within five days after the loss or theft may be guilty of an infraction.

Under current law, it is difficult for a new gun to enter the market illegally. However, guns can move into the illegal market by traffickers or “straw purchasers” – people eligible to own guns that purchase them to sell to people who are not.

One way this happens is that traffickers use the “it was stolen” excuse: a crime gun is traced back to the person who legally purchased the gun and, when the owner is asked how his gun got to the person who committed the crime, he or she says that the gun was stolen. Prosecution of these straw purchasers is not possible because current law does not require reporting of stolen firearms. Implementing a reporting requirement would dramatically impact the black market for firearms.

Los Angeles currently has a similar measure in place which requires gun owners to report their lost or stolen firearms.