Welcome Back From Recess: Here’s Where Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Backed Gun Safety Bills Stand in Sacramento

Today, California lawmakers in both chambers return to the legislature for the first time after summer recess. Since the onset of this year's legislative session, California state lawmakers have advanced various pieces of gun safety legislation. Though California has strong gun safety laws, there is more work that must be done to protect Californians from gun violence.

Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers have testified, emailed, and tweeted to support gun safety legislation in the statehouse. This session, volunteers and supporters have sent over 18,000 messages to lawmakers about gun safety. Here's a snapshot of the gun safety bills and where they stand:

Being Considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee:

• Hate-Based Gun Violence Prevention Act (AB 2917; Asm. Zbur): legislation to clarify existing law and highlight important risk factors judges should consider in deciding whether to issue a GVRO. These clarifications will help ensure this life-saving tool is used to remove firearms before clear threats turn into tragedy.
• Hate Crimes Reduction and Community Safety Act(AB 2621; Asm. Gabriel): legislation to update the requirements for written local law enforcement policies relating to gun violence restraining orders and update law enforcement hate crimes training to include instruction on identifying circumstances where a gun violence restraining order may be an appropriate tool for preventing hate crimes.
• AB 1858 (Asm. Ward): legislation to require schools conducting gun violence drills to utilize a trauma-informed approach, including advance notification of drills to staff and parents, limitations on drills with simulations, and availability of mental health resources.
• AB 2642 (Asm. Berman): legislation to create a pathway for voters and election officials to enforce important prohibitions on election intimidation in state civil court, including a presumption that openly carrying a gun around a voting site is illegal intimidation.

Being Considered by the Assembly Appropriations Committee:

• SB 53 (Sen. Portantino): legislation to extend California's requirement to securely store firearms to all households and strengthens secure storage standards.
• SB 965 (Sen. Min): legislation to require annual CalDOJ reporting of firearms dealers inspections that were conducted and any violations of important gun safety laws discovered during those inspections.
• SB 899 (Sens. Blakespear and Skinner): legislation to establish uniform procedures to ensure people promptly turn in their guns after a court issues a restraining order prohibiting them from having firearms.
• SB 902(Sen. Roth): legislation to prohibit firearm access for ten years from anyone who has been convicted of an animal cruelty misdemeanor.
• SB 1019(Sen. Blakespear): legislation to strengthen state law to make sure that crime guns are fully destroyed and that law enforcement agencies are transparent about the terms of any contracts with outside agencies to store or destroy firearms.

Statistics about gun violence in California are available here, and Everytown's Gun Law Navigator - which shows how California's gun laws compare to those of other states - is available here.

If you are interested in speaking with a California Moms Demand Action or Students Demand Action policy expert or volunteer, please contact [email protected].