SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGTV) — California’s Senate has approved a measure to increase the scrutiny of hunting licenses used in gun sales, prompted by last year’s fatal shooting at a Poway synagogue.
Senate Bill 914, introduced by Democratic Sen. Anthony Portantino, would require gun stores and the state Department of Justice to both check the validity of hunting licenses during a waiting period after gun buyers purchase a weapon and before they pick it up.
The bill will now head to the state Assembly.
SB 914 comes after a 10News investigation uncovered that the 19-year-old shooting suspect bought the gun used in the attack at a shop in San Diego using an invalid hunting license.
10NEWS INVESTIGATIONS ON POWAY SHOOTING:
- New bill aims to correct error that allowed Poway suspect to buy gun
- Questions about how the synagogue shooting suspect got the gun
- Process to get a hunting license in California
The suspect, 19 at the time of the shooting, used that invalid hunting license to claim an exemption to a state law that raised the minimum purchase age to 21.
California's age limit law, a bill Portantino authored in 2018, kept the minimum purchase age at 18 for military, law enforcement, and those with valid state-issued hunting licenses.
"The system should have been better, and that's what we're coming to grips with," Portantino said in an interview with 10News reporter Jon Horn. "How do we make it better, so these things have protections so that it doesn't happen again?"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
