Rep. Xavier Becerra pledged Tuesday to aggressively collect guns from thousands of Californians banned from having them — so long as the Legislature helps provide the needed resources.
“Part of this is going to be a funding issue,” Becerra told lawmakers considering his nomination to the post of state attorney general. “I don’t think there’s anybody on this dais who wouldn’t say we want to remove weapons from those who are not allowed to have them.”
At issue is the backlog of roughly 12,000 individuals named in a state database known as the Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS). It identifies convicted felons, individuals with active restraining orders and those determined to be mentally unstable who own weapons.
The database has been a target of Republican lawmakers, who in recent years have criticized the state Department of Justice for failing to address the backlog.
“We’re talking today about reducing gun violence, and it appears to me that the most direct way to do that is to fully implement the APPS program,” Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-San Luis Obispo, told Becerra.
Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Becerra, a Democratic 12-term congressman, to serve as state attorney general after Democrat Kamala Harris won election to the U.S. Senate. Becerra addressed an array of questions from the protection of immigrant information to environmental regulation at a more than hour-long hearing held by the Assembly Special Committee on the Office of the Attorney General.
When asked if he would clear the backlog in the APPS database, Becerra said he would work aggressively to confiscate weapons and use “every innovative tool” available to ensure weapons are seized from individuals at the time they are prosecuted.
“We essentially got the lowest-hanging fruit first, and now it’s getting tougher because some folks don’t want to give them up,” Becerra said. “So, we have to work a little harder.”
On the protection of immigrants' personal information, Becerra, who is the son of immigrants, described the issue as a very personal one. He praised California lawmakers for moving aggressively to examine ways the state might protect immigrants who fear deportation after the 2016 election.
Since the November election, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport 2 million to 3 million illegal immigrants who have criminal records. However, during the campaign he vowed to build a wall along the Mexican border and deport “millions and millions” of illegal immigrants.
Trump’s focus on immigration is especially concerning to the California youth who came to the United States when they were children and who have registered to avoid deportation under the program known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. California lawmakers have pledged to shield student information from the federal government.
“People in California have more protection than they know,” Becerra said. “We just have to educate them on what their rights are.”
Becerra’s nomination is expected to go before the Assembly and Senate for a full vote on Friday.
