A bill designed to add new layers of restrictions to gun permitting laws in California in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent ruling in a New York case just failed to pass in the Assembly, coming in just two votes short.

As the Chronicle reports, SB918 was introduced by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge, LA) earlier this year, in anticipation of the Supreme Court's June ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. The decision effectively struck down restrictive gun permit laws in multiple states and narrowly defined a set of "sensitive places" where states could restrict the concealed carrying of weapons.

SB918 would have added a broad list of "sensitive places" where the state would ban concealed carrying, including bars, parks, casinos, sports arenas, libraries, churches and gyms. And it would have added more regulations and limitations to how individuals could obtain concealed-carry permits, including a requirement for three references that some said would likely be challenged in the courts.

The bill needed a two-thirds majority, and it failed just after midnight last night in the Assembly, 52-23. A last-minute effort to whip votes reportedly fell short by just two. As of Wednesday, there were reportedly five assemblymembers who remained undecided.

This was the Assembly's last night of its 2022 legislative session.

As the Chronicle notes, it was the emergency clause that Portantino added to the bill, making it so that it would take effect immediately after Governor Newsom's signature, that did it in. Such emergency clauses require two-thirds majorities, which this one didn't have, to pass.

The Gun Owners of California advocacy group is obviously pleased, and they had previously decried the fact that the bill sought to "designate any public place as sensitive."

Portantino, for his part, has vowed to reintroduce the bill next year. "I’m legitimately surprised it didn’t pass,” he tells the LA Times.

Photo: Jacob Boavista