July 5, 2011 marks the day that the Airsoft community and other opponents of SB798 to go into full throttle. SB798 as amended to repeal Government Code Section 53071.5 passed the Committee on Public Safety of the California State Assembly. From here, it's only two steps away from becoming a reality: pass the full Assembly Vote (all members of the California State Assembly voting on SB798) and have the signature of Governor Jerry Brown to fully repeal Section 53071.5 (unless he vetoes it).

As reported by Dr. Airsoft of Airsoft Medicine, the voting was along party lines:

Ayes (5): Ammiano (Dem-13), Cedillo (Dem-45), Hill (Dem-19), Mitchell (Dem-47), Skinner (Dem-14)
Noes (2): Knight (Rep-36), Hagman (Rep-60)

This means that the efforts of those opposed to SB798 will have to be stretched further, from 7 members of the Committe on Public Safety, to 80 members of the California State Assembly. As for those asking if the Upper House (State Senate) of the California Legislature has already voted on the bill, SB798 has already passed both Senate Committee and Floor and just needs to pass the State Assembly before it goes to the Governor for final approval. The State Senate will have to vote on this again as mentioned by Dr. Airsoft in the comments section as this amended bill is different from the original bill that was voted and passed by the Senate Committee and Senate Floor.

The Committee hearing did not have debates as it was just mainly a voting session by the members and no members of the public were given the floor to state their opposition or support for the amended bill. Assembly Member Curt Hagman pointed out the effect on paintball and Steve Knight, the Committee Vice Chair, expressed apprehension to the bill as it will be a mess since local governments will make their own regulations as there are 58 counties and over 450 cities and overburdens any owner of an imitation firearm owner going through several jurisdictions on the way to purchase or play airsoft or do some recreational shooting, with some may have regulations and others not.

Here's the audio on the vote on the bill as provided by Dr. Airsoft (we were not able to catch the live stream of the hearing):

Paintball does not escape regulation by the local government unlike the previously amendment to the bill where it got an exemption. This means that Paintball is also back to square one, even after lobbying for the exemption and supporting SB798. Either they take out of the civilian market the paintball markers designed to look like real firearms or join again in the efforts to campaign against SB798. They are actually in a bind, given that they have not put out any official statement.

That is why we have cautioned against any premature celebration when SB798 was dealt a setback at the June 24 hearing. We have seen images of "We Won!" being posted online when in fact there are still processes that the bill will have to undergo.

Now the game is blown wide open as there are more players brought in, 80 members of the State Assembly, which will surely demand a disciplined organization on the part of the Airsoft Safety Foundation, the airsoft community, the air gun groups, firearms enthusiasts, and the lobbying firms hired to help oppose the bill. The next phase of the campaign against SB798 is to make sure that it does not get a majority vote from the Assembly members.

It's time to ante up among the members of the opposition and see how the airsoft community would perform against ever daunting odds.