On June 17, 2009, California's Brady Campaign Chapters went to Sacramento to advocate with our state legislators (serving from Eureka to San Diego and in between) for our 2009 priority legislation.   We had representatives from 16 of our 22 CA Brady chapters -- a great turnout -- including a combination of long-time leaders and new Brady members.

Before starting out on our legislative appointments, we had an excellent briefing by our Legislative Co-Chairs, Amanda and Nick Wilcox.  Next we met with Assembly Member Kevin de Leon, whose bill, AB 962, is our top priority bill for 2009.  AB 962 proposes to regulate the sale of ammunition in California in order to deter prohibited persons (ex-felons, mentally ill, and domestic violence abusers) from purchasing ammunition in person or online.

If AB 962 becomes law, ammunition sellers will be required to keep records of ammunition sales for 5 years that can be reviewed by law enforcement.  As Chief James from the California Police Chiefs has noted, "It's a new tool for crime detection and any addditional tool is good."  In the city of Sacramento where ammunition sales are already tracked, the police have discovered that 3 percent of ammunition is purchased by prohibited persons and have recovered numerous illegally owned firearms and supplies of ammunition.

Opposition from the gun lobby to AB 962 has been fierce.  Opponenents have put out utterly false information about the bill and Assembly de Leon has been subjected to a hate mail campaign.  The gun lobby apparently fears any regulation of ammunition sales, even though we have similar regulations in California for allergy medicine!!

California Brady members also spoke with their legislators about SB 449 by Senator Alex Padilla which requires that pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers report firearms acquisitions directly to the Department of Justice electronically is order to improve the accuracy and reliability of the Department's Automated Firearms System.

AB 962 and SB 449 have passed their respective legislative houses and will now be heard in the other house.  It is hoped that both bills -- which do not require any support from the General Fund -- will be signed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

Our day in Sacramento was a fine opportunity to meet our legislators and their staffs and to discuss ways that California can improve its already strong collection of sensible gun laws.  We thank all the California Brady members who attended and hope to bring even more of our supporters to Sacramento in the future.

April, a month of tragic gun violence anniversaries for Columbine and Virginia Tech was, at the same time, a month of forward movement for California's Brady Campaign.

On April 20, the Columbine anniversary, California Brady leaders met in Sacramento to support new legislation being heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.  At a press conference with Assembly Members Kevin De Leon and Paul Krekorian, Brady leaders expressed support for AB 962 (De Leon) regulating ammunition sales and AB 814 (Krekorian) establishing procedures to retrieve guns from owners who have become prohibited persons under the law.  The press conference also observed a moment of silence for Columbine and all other gun victims.

On April 21, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ) and Jack Reed (RI) introduced S. 843, the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2009 to close the gun show loophole.  Currently, gun purchasers in many states can buy guns at gun shows, flea markets and swap meets with Brady criminal background checks.  This practice must be ended.  The legislation will go a long way to stemming the flow of illegal guns into California from states with weaker gun laws.

Also on April 20, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel held that counties can ban gun shows on public property without violating the Second Amendment.  This decision hopefully concluded a case brought by two gun  show promoters to overturn Alameda County's ordinance prohibiting the carrying of guns and ammunition on county property.  The gun promoters had hoped that the Supreme Court's Heller decision would assist in their lawsuit but the Appeals Court ruled that the Second Amendment does not preclude reasonable gun restrictions set down by a government agency.  California Brady members sat in on the hearings for this lawsuit and were gratified by the decision.  The California Brady Campaign is also supporting SB 585 introduced by Senator Mark Leno that would ban the sale of firearms and ammunition at the San Francisco Cow Palace.

On May 19, Los Angeles will hold its runoff election for City Attorney.  The race has been hotly contested between Jack Weiss and Carmen Trutanich.  The Brady Campaign has endorsed Jack Weiss in recognition of his longstanding leadership on sensible gun laws.  The Brady Campaign has also endorsed gun violence prevention champion and former Assembly Member, Paul Koretz, for LA City Council in the 5th District.

With the terrible massacres occurring across the U.S. in the last few weeks, we all feel the need for a dramatic response.  It's time for Congress to require Brady criminal background checks on all firearm transactions including all gun show sales.  It's time to pass a comprehensive assault weapons ban.

While we, in California, can work on these issues nationally, we can
also work on a different piece of the gun violence epidemic – handgun
ammunition sales in California.  While current law prohibits certain
categories of people -- criminals and the mentally ill -- from purchasing
ammunition, there is no way to enforce this law because there is no
monitoring of ammunition sales.  Moreover, a loophole in current law
allows ammunition sellers to sell to prohibited people without any legal
sanction!  Thus, many ammunition sales are made to people prohibited
by law from possessing ammunition.

AB 962, introduced by Assembly Member Kevin De Leon, would change all
that.  The bill makes it unlawful to sell ammunition to known prohibited
persons.   The bill contains other critical provisions: 

1) handgun ammunition sellers would have to obtain a vendor's license
from the Department of Justice 

2) all employees handling ammunition sales would have to pass a background
check 

3) to prevent shoplifting, all handgun ammunition would have to be safely
stored, such as behind the sales counter 

4) handgun ammunition sales would be required to be in face-to-face
transactions, thereby eliminating internet or mail order sales.

Equally important ammunition sellers would be obliged to keep records
for five years about every handgun
ammunition sale, including name, thumbprint, signature, of the purchaser,
and type and amount of ammunition purchased.  These records would be
required to be made available to law enforcement.

While California has the strongest gun laws in the U.S., there is much
more that we can do to assure we live with sensible and effective gun
laws.  Ammunition sales regulation is sensible and critical for keeping
ammunition out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously
mentally ill.  Just consider how many of the killers in the massacres
in recent weeks fell into the category of criminal or mentally ill. 
AB 962 is a bill that puts no additional expense on the state and it
provides law enforcement with an additional tool for solving and preventing
crime.

Just think about this -- in California, we insist, for the public's
protection, that pharmacies store many strong allergy medicines behind
the sales counter.  Wouldn't we want to do at least the same for handgun
ammunition?

In light of the terrifying series of gun massacres in the US in the last month and this week's massacre in Binghamton, New York, we reprint an article written by Amanda Wilcox.  Amanda and Nick Wilcox are the Legislative Chairs for the California Brady Campaign.  Amanda is also the Interim Chair of the Brady Chapter in Sacramento.

In the article below, Amanda describes the loss in 2001 of Laura Wilcox, Amanda and Nick's daughter, in a shooting by a severely mentally ill person.  The experience of losing a loved one to gun violence cannot be imagined.  In the article below, Amanda describes how tracking ammunition sales can assist in decreasing gun violence.  That subject will be discussed in the subsequent blog.

By Amanda Wilcox:

It is said that a child in the US is far more likely to catch a bullet than to catch the measles. Every year in our country, about 30,000 people die from gun violence and over 70,000 people are injured by gunfire. Drive-by shootings and firearm homicides are becoming common occurrences in the Sacramento area. Have you had enough? Join the Campaign to keep illegal guns off our streets and help curb gun violence.  

My family has been personally touched by gun violence. In 2001, my only daughter, Laura, was murdered while home on winter break from college. Laura was filling in as a receptionist at a Behavioral Health clinic in Nevada County, when, without warning, a patient suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun and shot Laura four times at point blank range. Laura was killed instantly. When the shooting rampage at the clinic and at a nearby restaurant ended, three people lay dead, three were severely injured, a community was shaken, and the world was diminished by the loss of an incredible young woman.

The circumstances surrounding Laura’s death dramatically highlight the tragic intersection of untreated severe mental illness and inappropriate access to firearms. Certainly, improved mental health care and better access to treatment are morally right and necessary for true violence prevention. The enforcement of laws that keep firearms out of inappropriate hands is also essential.     

Laura’s killer had a houseful of illegal weapons. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence believes that dangerous weapons should be kept out of dangerous hands. There are classes of people, who, based on past behaviors, are deemed to be at high risk of committing violent acts with firearms. We have laws that prohibit these persons – such as the dangerously mentally ill, gang members, violent felons, or wife batterers – from purchasing or possessing firearms or ammunition. We have laws, such as the Brady Background Check, that regulate the transfer of weapons and provide the means for keeping guns out of dangerous hands. The City of Sacramento and the State of California are leaders in adopting such laws, which need to be expanded to other jurisdictions or states.   

Last year, Sacramento City Council Member McCarty introduced a city ordinance that tracks ammunition sales in order to deter and detect ammunition purchases by criminals, gang members, and other unlawful purchasers. The ordinance requires gun dealers to maintain a log of ammunition sales, including identifying information about the purchaser. The Sacramento Police Department cross-checks these logs with the existing state database of prohibited persons and can determine who is illegally buying ammo and may be illegally armed. Furthermore, the Police Department regularly uses the ammunition log information in the investigation of gun crime.   

After eight months of data (Jan. 2008 – Sept. 2008), the results are astounding. The Sacramento Police Department reports that 117 prohibited people purchased ammunition. Of these prohibited people, 80% had felony convictions and 6 were gang members. 67% of the illegal ammunition purchased was primarily ammunition used in handguns. It is important to note that handguns are the weapons of choice for criminals.   

As a result of the information from the ammunition logs, the Sacramento Police Department was able to execute 28 search warrants and recover 56 illegal firearms, 800+ rounds of illegal ammunition, and 3 stolen firearms. Arrests, felony charges and convictions have taken place. The Sacramento Police Department reports that, “The ordinance and the enforcement program which has resulted from it have proven to be effective tools for locating firearms violators.”  

The level of gun crime and gun violence in the Sacramento area has become disturbingly high. Disarming criminals and other prohibited persons is a critical step for improving public safety. The Sacramento City Ammunition Ordinance provides a means for identifying and disarming criminals and other prohibited persons. However, illegal guns and illegal ammo does not stop at city lines. To the extent that Sacramento County and other neighboring jurisdictions adopt similar ordinances, the surrounding communities will become safer. To that end, Council Member McCarty and the Sacramento Valley Brady Campaign Chapter are seeking a countywide ammunition ordinance.

This blog was contributed by Amanda and Nick Wilcox, CA Brady's Legislative Co-Chairs

Over the last two decades, California has enacted numerous significant and innovative firearm laws.  In fact, California legislation often serves as a model for other state or federal legislation.  Following Governor Schwarzenegger’s signature of our priority bill (microstamping) in 2007, similar legislation was introduced in seven states and at the federal level.  Former California legislators and governors, both Democrat and Republican, are to be commended for these past accomplishments.

The 2009-2010 legislative session provides an opportunity for further successes and challenges.  In the Assembly, a net gain of three Democrat seats will undoubtedly ease the passage of our bills on the Assembly Floor.  Moreover, Speaker Karen Bass, Majority Floor Leader Alberto Torrico, and Appropriations Committee Chair Kevin de León are strong supporters of gun violence prevention measures.

New Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg has been a longtime champion of gun violence prevention and authored significant firearm legislation as a member of the California Assembly.  Senator Mark Leno, also a strong ally of the California Brady Campaign Chapters, will chair the Senate Public Safety Committee.

In this time of budget crises, getting our bills through the Appropriations Committees will be a big challenge.  However, with the support of key leaders in both the Assembly and Senate, and by introducing legislation with little or no cost, we look forward to a successful 2009-2010 legislative session!