SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Legislation that has the backing of California's attorney general would close a loophole in the nation's toughest assault weapons law, making it more difficult for guns to be swiftly reloaded with high-capacity magazines.
Attorney General Kamala Harris and a Democratic state lawmaker are seeking the change after this summer's massacre at a Colorado movie theater.
The state's regulations allow gun manufacturers to sell weapons in California with magazines that can be removed and replaced quickly using a simple tool known as a "bullet button."
Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco plans to amend SB249 next week to make it clear that state law bans rifles and shotguns with easily detachable magazines.
The National Rifle Association warns that hundreds of thousands of semiautomatic rifles legally sold in California would become illegal.
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