SACRAMENTO /California Newswire/ — Building on his commitment to keeping dangerous weapons off California’s streets and out of the hands of criminals and gang members, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today highlighted a bill he signed, AB 962 by Assemblymember Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles). This bill would require vendors of handgun ammunition transfers and sales to keep a log of information on handgun ammunition sales, store ammunition in a safe and secure manner and require the face-to-face transfer of ammunition sales.

“My number one priority has always been public safety and protecting the people,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I’ve signed laws that crack down on sex offenders, drunk drivers, gangs and drugs. And today, we are highlighting another very important bill I signed to help make our communities safer by keeping deadly ammunition out of the hands of criminals, gang members and violent felons.”

From Los Angeles to Sacramento, a total of 13 cities across California have enacted ammunition record-keeping laws with great success. Last year in Sacramento alone, almost 200 dangerous criminals who were not legally entitled to own firearms or ammunition walked into a store and bought ammunition. Because Sacramento had this program in place, the criminals were arrested for purchasing ammunition. AB 962 will take these local efforts statewide starting February 1, 2011 by enacting a uniform law that will not allow dangerous criminals to skirt around the system by simply going to the next city to buy ammunition. The new law will make it unlawful for a vendor to knowingly sell handgun ammunition to anyone prohibited from possessing a firearm and prohibit any person subject to a gang injunction from owning or possessing handgun ammunition.

Under Governor Schwarzenegger’s leadership, California became the first state to ban .50 caliber rifles, instituted the California Firearms License Check program and began the use of microstamping technology in handguns to provide law enforcement with an additional tool for solving crimes committed with semi-automatic handguns in California.