SACRAMENTO - (INT) - Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, announced her bill, AB 150, to allow voters a chance to reinstate felony penalties for firearm theft recently reduced under Proposition 47, was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, effectively rendering it dead.

“The Democrats have demonstrated appalling hypocrisy today,” said Melendez, the Vice Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. "The Democrats consistently enact harsher gun control laws for law-abiding citizens. Today, they made it easier for a lawbreaker to kill an innocent victim."

Prior to the passage of Proposition 47, stealing any type of firearm was considered felony grand theft. Proposition 47 reduced the penalty to a misdemeanor for firearms that are valued at under $950.

If passed, Melendez’s bill would have sent the issue of firearm theft back to the ballot as a stand-alone provision that voters could either reaffirm or reject.

Story Date: May 31, 2015