One more example of how California is trying to regulate and tax guns stores out of business. 

Via Bearing Arms

The bill, known as SB 464, was introduced by State Senator Jerry Hill after a constituent brought his attention to a number of burglaries up and down the state in which suspects were using cars to break into gun stores and steal weapons.

If Hill’s bill is approved by Gov. Brown, gun shop owners will be required to implement at least one the following security measures (if one isn’t already in place) to help protect their store from these types of attacks:

• Storing firearms in a locked fireproof safe or vault on the business premises
• Storing firearms in a locked steel gun rack
• Storing firearms in shatter proof or other specified display case (i.e. a polycarbonate display case or one that has security film)
• Running a hardened steel rod or cable of at least one-eighth inch in diameter through the trigger guard of the firearm, if firearms are stored in a regular, non-shatter-proof display case. The rod or cable must be secured with a hardened steel lock that has a shackle. The lock and shackle must also be protected from the use of a bolt-cutter. If using the rod or cable method, and the store is at street level, the owner must also place concrete or hardened steel bollards or another specified barrier outside the store to protect against vehicle ambushes.
• Installing steel, roll-down doors on perimeter doors and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Hill thinks these measures shouldn’t place too much of a burden on business owners, especially since many already have them in place.

“This bill, working with the gun store owners and operators, I think we crafted it in a way that is not onerous, provides options and choices in making sure that guns are secure,” he tells The Daily Journal.

However, at least one gun shop owner disagrees.

John Bastiani, who owns Bastiani Arms in Redding, California, says that the new legislation will do little to prevent burglaries while costing business owners thousands.

“It’s going to waste a lot of people’s money and it’s not going to make a building totally secure,” Bastiani tells Redding Searchlight. “All this is doing is giving some anti-gun people a warm and fuzzy feeling.”

The gun shop owner says he looked into installing barriers outside his store (one of the accepted security measures listed in the bill) a few years ago and received estimates of over $1,500.

Patrick Jones, who manages Jones Fort, another gun shop in Redding, seems to share the same sentiment.

“This is just another law where they try to micromanage what we do,” he tells Redding Spotlight. “It doesn’t stop the problem. It just costs more money.”

Craig DeLuz, a spokesman for the Firearms Policy Coalition, even goes as far as saying these new requirements will drive some gun shop owners out of business.

“SB 464 represents a solution looking for a problem,” he explains in a statement. “It adds to the ever-increasing number of unnecessary laws and regulations that restrict how and where firearms retailers are able to engage in business, facilitating the exercise of a constitutionally enumerated right.”

Read more here.