SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A bill to make the public display of unloaded rifles and other long guns a misdemeanor has passed the Assembly, a year after lawmakers passed a similar ban for handguns.

      AB1527 passed the Assembly 42-28 Thursday, with Republicans opposed. It includes a long list of exemptions for hunters, military personnel and others.

      Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino of La Canada Flintridge modeled the bill on one he wrote last year banning open carry of handguns. That bill was a response to demonstrations by "open-carry" activists who were gathering at coffee shops wearing their handguns on their hips.

      The same activists are now bringing rifles to public places.

      Portantino said those demonstrations could lead to tragedy because the only person who knows whether a gun is loaded is the person holding it.

      
      (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)