World | Wed Jun 1, 2016 10:21pm EDT

California Assembly passes gun control bills

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. | BY SHARON BERNSTEIN

The California Assembly on Wednesday passed a package of gun control bills, including a measure to ban so-called bullet buttons which allow quick changes in the magazine of a military-style weapon.

The bills, which lawmakers are pushing the Senate to consider this month, are among several gun control measures that leaders of both houses want to pass in advance of a gun control referendum headed for the November ballot.

The measures include a ban on so-called bullet buttons which supporters say allow gun manufacturers to bypass the state's prohibition on removable ammunition magazines. Weapons owned by the shooters in December's San Bernardino massacre were equipped with bullet buttons.

The bill passed on the same day that the University of California, Los Angeles campus was shut down in the wake of a murder-suicide shooting.

Also passed was a bill to allow employers, co-workers, mental health workers and school employees to ask a judge to ban someone from possessing a gun for up to a year. The state already allows family members to seek such a ban, known as a gun violence restraining order, against relatives whom a judge rules are at high risk of committing violence against themselves or others with a firearm.

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