ICYMI: CNN: California's Gun Seizure Squad Finds an Arsenal Under A Bed

Monday, March 5, 2018
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

By Jason Kravarik and Stephanie Elam

…California keeps a list of people who should have surrendered or sold their weapons and sends agents like Richardson to check on homes and seize any weapons that should not be there.

For the next hour, agents from the California Attorney General's Division of Law Enforcement haul out more weapons than they had listed in this suburban Los Angeles home: three assault-style rifles, a shotgun, a pistol, and 6,500 rounds of ammunition.

One of the rifles is outfitted with a bump stock, which allows a semi-automatic weapon to function similarly to a machine gun.

Two of the rifles are considered "ghost guns" – weapons free of serial numbers so they can't be traced by law enforcement.

The Armed Prohibited Persons System (APPS) includes people who are not allowed to own a weapon because of a conviction in a felony or violent misdemeanor. But it also includes people who have not been convicted but have restraining orders against them, or who have mental health problems. The latter most often includes people who have been placed on a three-day mental health hold by law enforcement or a physician, Richardson said.

"We're not telling anyone who's law abiding...that they're going to have to give up anything," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. "We're talking about folks who have proven themselves unworthy."

"Only in California do we have (this) law," Becerra added. "And we encourage other states, in fact the country, to do the same thing."

Read the full article here.

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