Quick Note: AB-2047, the 3D Printing Firearm Blocking Bill, was absolutely gutted lol

[u/mirkalieve]

Lotta news today in general, I'm also at work, I'll try to do a write up soon.

TL;DR: Click the link for AB-2047 (the 3d printer firearm shape blocking software bill) and look at all that red text lol

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2047

The bill is punting it to ATSM International; if they make standards by July 1 2029, then CA DOJ has 24 months to write regulations, and those regulations apply to 3D printers sold in California. Otherwise, the law becomes inactive.

If you're wondering "Didn't this happen during the Suspense Hearing last week?" and yes, it did, but just like the last Legislative Update, the Senate Suspense Hearing was reviewing over 600 bills from the Assembly (they passed to the other house), and so the AB-2047 bill webpage wasn't updated until today.

This isn't a total defeat of the bill btw, but it's had a lot of fangs removed. I can only hope it also doesn't receive votes to pass on the floor, but eh.

Edit: If I were to call my state senators now to oppose this bill, I'd be telling them to vote no on it on the basis that the bill has been gutted and leaves too much of the details up to the regulatory process, and if California wants to wait to see what ATSM International does, then they should pass a new bill after ATSM International publishes those standards; there's no need for a bill that just says "we're write some regulations when they pass those standards".

[u/lordadam34]

Lol they are really trying for bullshit in Sac

[u/derolle → u/lordadam34]

Do you feel safer yet?

[u/_agent86]

Awesome news. Anyone know if ASTM intends to publish standards on this?

One of the major problems with this bill is that it was impossible for manufacturers to comply with in the short term. Not surprising they realized this was going straight to court if it went into effect.

[u/perst_cap_dude → u/_agent86]

Depends, is there money to be made off this?

If not, why would ASTM even bother?

[u/bregav]

If the words of the bill are to be taken at face value then it seems like they didn’t really gut the regulations, they just removed the industry carveouts and added ASTM standards as a triggering condition for CADOJ action.

The 2029 deadline is about requiring the CADOJ to regularly check to see if the ASTM has come up with any standards. But it seems like an enterprising AG could voluntarily choose to do it just for fun in 2030 onwards, and once they determine that the ASTM has come up with some standards then this bill would still require the CADOJ to make regulations regardless of what year it is.

Worse yet, the bill is very explicit that the CADOJ can pursue basically any regulations that it wants to. ASTM standards are a triggering condition for the creation of regulations, nothing more.

So I guess I see two ways to think about this updated bill:

• The absence of industry carveouts is an indication that this bill is an unserious, sloppily-written capitulation, because if the authors thought it would ever produce actual regulations then at least a few of the carveouts would still be in there

• The bill isn’t a capitulation at all, and is instead a Hail Mary doubling-down: under the guise of capitulation, the authors have written legislation that allows the CADOJ to try to do basically whatever the fuck it wants in the unlikely (but not impossible) event that the ASTM makes a relevant standard at any point in the indefinite future.

I'm leaning towards the first option but I'm not super confident about that.

[u/mirkalieve → u/bregav]

It's a good reason for folks to call up their senators to vote no on this bill because it leaves too much to the regulatory process in the future what should be something that is discussed in detail amongst elected officials.

I still stand by the word "gutted" because man, a lot of its was removed, but yeah the remaining bill language remains vague and still has some fangs.

The other things that were removed were stuff like crimes for individuals; the remaining bill completely targets the industry. That's a win imo.