Sacramento --

Nearly 20,000 registered gun owners in California are ineligible to have guns yet still do, and it could take three years and $25 million for authorities to confiscate the weapons, law enforcement officials told a legislative committee Tuesday.

The registered gun owners lost their legal rights to keep the weapons due to felony convictions, domestic violence actions, mental health conditions or addiction to narcotic drugs, among other reasons. California Department of Justice officials have listed 19,784 such gun owners in an "armed prohibited persons system" and say they own nearly 39,000 handguns and more than 1,600 assault weapons. (Assault weapons are banned in California, but people who purchased them before the ban can have them legally.)

But while California is the only state in the country that has a system to cross-check registered gun owners with offenses that result in a prohibition on ownership, it does not have the manpower to keep up with the rapidly expanding list, which grows by about 3,000 people per year, according to Stephen Lindley, chief of the bureau of firearms within the state Department of Justice.

State law enforcement officials told legislators they could get through the list - and eliminate the entire backlog in three years - if the Legislature approved about $8 million per year to fund 50 additional positions in the Department of Justice for the program.

"Despite our best efforts, the bureau does not have the funding or the resources to keep up with the annual influx of cases," Lindley told a joint state Senate and Assembly committee that was listening to ideas to tighten gun regulations in California, which already has the most restrictive laws in the United States.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed support for more funding, even asking how much it would cost to eliminate the backlog within six months or a year.

'Worthy investment'

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, noted the need for fiscal restraint by lawmakers when it comes to any new spending. But, he said, "It seems to me an $8 million-, $15 million-, $20 million-a-year investment in getting guns out of the hands of prohibited persons would be a wise and worthy investment."

In asking for more funding, Steinberg told Lindley, "Don't be shy."

Lawmakers already have introduced several bills to increase gun regulations, including new restrictions on purchasing ammunition. The actions come as lawmakers in states across the country, and the federal government, are considering tightening gun laws in the wake of the shooting massacre in Connecticut last month.

Later in the day, Steinberg and state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill to allow the attorney general to use money in an existing account from a fee people pay for background checks to boost funding for the prohibited-persons program.

The fund has a $12.7 million surplus, but the exact amount given to the program would be determined in legislative hearings, Leno said. The money could be available as soon as this spring.

Law enforcement agencies statewide have access to the "armed prohibited persons system," which was created through a bill in 2001 but did not become functional until 2006.

Guns already collected

Since enforcement started in 2007, the bureau of firearms has conducted more than 9,400 investigations and collected more than 10,000 guns, according to the Department of Justice. The latest statewide sweep happened in September and collected 553 firearms, 141 of which were assault weapons, according to a letter from state Attorney General Kamala Harris to Vice President Joe Biden.

Of those currently on the list, 32 percent have a criminal history, 30 percent have mental health issues, 20 percent have an active restraining order against them, and 18 percent are wanted persons.

Harris wrote earlier this month to encourage the Obama administration to create a national program similar to California's as part of proposed new federal gun regulations.

She wrote that the program would address "a critical gap in our nation's approach to gun violence - what do we do about the guns that are already in the hands of persons who, by law, are considered too dangerous to possess them?"

Representatives of gun-rights organizations in California were not available for comment on the issue.