"Here we go again!" would be the collective expression of exasperation within the California airsoft community, and perhaps the rest of the United States. State Senator Kevin De León has filed Senate Bill 199 (SB 199) together with Senators Evans, and Wolk with Principal coauthors in the State Assembly being Assembly Members Chesbro, Levine, and Yamada. SB 199 was amended and named as a "An Act to amend Sections 16250 and 16700 of the Penal Code, relating to BB devices."

This bill came as no surprise as Senator De León has been relishing the opportunity to  revive his agenda of regulating BB guns. Using the fatal of shooting of 13-year of Andy Lopez of Sta. Rosa as political ammo, De León hopes he can ram his agenda to the fullest and cover the whole State of California.

His agenda is  to force that airsoft guns should be bright colored or made of transparent or translucent materials. The coloration of the airsoft guns for safety purposes is already a butt of jokes within the firearms and airsoft communities since even real firearms can also be brightly colored and there is also a demand for colored real steel guns. This covers other BB guns that can expel projectiles up to 10mm in caliber

Again, this Bill exempts the Paintball industry as the spot markers that expel projectiles greater than 10mm in caliber will not be part of the definition even though there are many spot markers than fire projectiles from .43 to 68 caliber have designs that can also be mistaken firearms. In SB 798 where Senator De León was overtly supported by the Paintball Industry which has the most to gain with SB 798 and in this case SB 199 given the exemption to Spot Markers/Paintball Guns which fire projectiles bigger than 10mm.

Overall, SB 199 has the following highlights:

1. As an amendment to Section 16250 of the Penal Code,  a  “BB device” means any instrument that expels a projectile, such as a BB or a pellet, through the force of air pressure, gas pressure, or spring action, or any spot marker gun.

2. As Amendments to Section 16700 of the Penal Code:

a. “Imitation firearm” means any BB device, toy gun, replica of a firearm, or other device that so substantially similar in coloration and overall appearance to an existing firearm as to lead a reasonable person to perceive that the device is a firearm.

b. As used in Section 20165, “imitation firearm” does not include any of the following:

1.  A nonfiring collector’s replica that is historically significant, and is offered for sale in conjunction with a wall plaque or presentation case.
2. A spot marker gun which expels a projectile that is greater than 10mm caliber.
3. A device where the entire exterior surface of the device is white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink, or bright purple, either singly or as the predominant color in combination with other colors in any pattern,  or where the entire device is constructed of transparent or translucent materials which permits unmistakable observation of the device’s complete contents.

3. With existing law already prohibiting "anyone from purchasing, selling, manufacturing, shipping, transporting, distributing, or receiving an imitation firearm." If the Bill is passed and signed into law, the amendments would put most members of the airsoft community in California to be in violation and thus can be subject to a civil fine of not more than US$10,000.

We do not know yet how the California Airsoft Industry, especially those under the Airsoft Safety Foundation would act this time. But this would be an even tougher battle as Senator De León is now relying on a more support as see in the number of co-sponsors of the SB 199 both in the State Senate and State Assembly. But we'll see how this pans out in the following weeks and months as the Bill goes through the legislative process of the State of California.