In In re Ramon A. (1995) 40 Cal.App.4th 935, the First Appellate District (First District) examined former section 12034's statutory language and its legislative history and found them to be ambiguous. However, it concluded that the purpose of the statute, to deter drive-by shootings, unambiguously required that knowledge that the firearm was loaded not be an element of the offense. (Ramon A., supra, 40 Cal.App.4th at pp. 941-942.) "This legislative objective--to deter drive-by shootings by making an owner or driver criminally responsible for the presence of loaded guns in the vehicle--cannot be effectively served if conviction under section 12034 requires proof of knowledge that the gun was loaded. The fact that a gun is loaded is rarely evident without inspection. Even if the driver possesses such knowledge, it can only be proven by an admission, or by evidence that another person told the driver the gun was loaded, that the act of loading occurred in the driver's presence, or that the driver acquired such knowledge from some other event, such as the gun's being fired. Rare indeed will be the prosecution under section 12034 in which any such evidence is available. As a practical matter, then, appellant's reading would render the statute largely impotent to achieve its avowed purpose." (Ramon A., at p. 941.)