BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 108
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 15, 2013
Counsel: Sandy Uribe
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Tom Ammiano, Chair
SB 108 (Yee) - As Amended: August 14, 2013
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct a
study to determine effective safe storage measures aimed at
reducing unintentional firearm injury and death as well as
firearm theft and unauthorized use of firearms. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires the study to include, but not be limited to, the
following:
a) A comprehensive overview of existing state law compared
to local California ordinances and other state statutes;
b) A comprehensive statistical comparison of rates of
unintentional firearm injury and death, self-inflicted
gunshot wounds, firearm theft, and unauthorized use of
firearms resulting in the weapon being used in a crime,
compared to local safe-storage ordinances, and other
state's safe-storage statutes;
c) An estimate of the effectiveness of San Francisco
Municipal Code Section 4512 in preventing unintentional
firearm injury and death, self-inflicted gunshot wounds,
firearm theft and unauthorized use of firearms resulting in
the firearm being used in a crime, compared to other cities
in California; and
d) An estimate of the effects in preventing the
aforementioned instances should San Francisco Municipal
Code Section 4512 be enacted as state law.
2)Requires DOJ to provide a copy of the study to the Assembly
and Senate Public Safety Committees by January 1, 2016.
EXISTING STATE LAW :
1)Provides that a person may be found guilty of criminal storage
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of a firearm of the first degree if all of the following
conditions are satisfied:
a) The person keeps any loaded firearm within any premises
that are under the person's custody or control;
b) The person knows or reasonably should know that a child
is likely to gain access to the firearm without the
permission of the child's parent or legal guardian; and,
c) The child obtains access to the firearm and thereby
causes death or great bodily injury to the child or any
other person. [Penal Code Section 25100(a).]
2)Specifies that criminal storage in the first degree is
punishable by imprisonment pursuant to Penal Code Section
1170(h) for 16 months, or two or three years, by a fine not
exceeding $10,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine; or
by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, by a
fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that imprisonment and
fine. [Penal Code Section 25110(a).]
3)Provides that a person commits the crime of "criminal storage
of a firearm of the second degree" if all of the following
conditions are satisfied:
a) The person keeps any loaded firearm within any premises
that are under the person's custody or control;
b) The person knows or reasonably should know that a child
is likely to gain access to the firearm without the
permission of the child's parent or legal guardian; and,
c) The child obtains access to the firearm and causes
injury, other than great bodily injury, to the child or any
other person, or the child carries the firearm to a public
place, or brandishes the firearm. [Penal Code Section
25100(b).]
4)Specifies that criminal storage in the second degree is a
misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not
exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both
that imprisonment and fine. [Penal Code Section 25110(b).]
5)Imposes criminal liability on any person who keeps a pistol,
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revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the
person, loaded or unloaded, within any premise that is under
his or her custody or control and he or she knows, or
reasonably should know, a child is likely to gain access to
that firearm without the permission of the child's parent or
legal guardian, and the child obtains access to that firearm
and thereafter carries that firearm off-premises. This
violation carries a punishment of imprisonment in a county
jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding $1,000,
or both. [Penal Code Section 25200(a).]
6)Provides that if a person keeps any firearm within any
premises that is under his or her custody or control and he or
she knows, or reasonably should know, a child is likely to
gain access to that firearm without the permission of the
child's parent or legal guardian, and the child obtains access
to that firearm and thereafter carries that firearm to any
public or private preschool, elementary school, middle school,
high school, or to any school-sponsored event, activity or
performance, whether or not on school grounds or elsewhere.
This violation carries a punishment of imprisonment in a
county jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding
$5,000, or both. [Penal Code Section 25200(b).]
7)Exempts a person from prosecution for criminal storage under
any of the following conditions:
a) The child obtains the firearm as a result of an illegal
entry to any premises by any person;
b) The firearm is kept in a locked container or in a
location that a reasonable person would believe to be
secure;
c) The firearm is carried on the person or within close
enough proximity thereto that the individual can readily
retrieve and use the firearm as if carried on the person;
d) The firearm is locked with a locking device, as
specified, which has rendered the firearm inoperable;
e) The person is a peace officer or a member of the Armed
Forces or the National Guard and the child obtains the
firearm during, or incidental to, the performance of the
person's duties;
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f) The child obtains, or obtains and discharges, the
firearm in a lawful act of self-defense or defense of
another person; and,
g) The person who keeps a loaded firearm on premises that
are under the person's custody or control has no reasonable
expectation, based on objective facts and circumstances,
that a child is likely to be present on the premises.
(Penal Code Sections 25105 and 25205.)
8)Requires the district attorney to consider the fact that a
person who allegedly violated the criminal storage provisions
attended a firearm safety course prior to the purchase of the
firearm as a mitigating factor in deciding whether to
prosecute. [Penal Code Sections 25125(a) and 25220(a).]
9)Requires licensed firearms dealers to post notice of duties
regarding storage of firearms accessible to children. (Penal
Code Section 25130.)
10)Defines a "child" for purposes of the criminal storage
provisions as "a person under 18 years of age." (Penal Code
Section 25000.)
EXISTING SAN FRANCISCO LAW :
1)Prohibits a person from keeping a handgun within a residence
owned or controlled by that person unless the handgun is
stored in a locked container or disabled with a trigger lock
that has been approved by DOJ. [San Francisco Municipal Code
Section 4512(a).]
2)States that the prohibition in San Francisco Municipal Code
section 4512(a) does not apply in the following circumstances:
a) The handgun is carried on the person of an individual
over the age of 18; or
b) The handgun is under the control of a person who is a
peace officer as defined in the Penal Code. [San Francisco
Municipal Code Section 4512(c).]
1)Provides that a person who files a report with a law
enforcement agency notifying the agency that a handgun has
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been lost or stolen shall not be subject to prosecution for
violation of the San Francisco safe-storage ordinance. [San
Francisco Municipal Code Section 4512(d).]
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "Unauthorized
access to a firearm too often results in unintentional or
self-inflicted gunshot wounds, or firearms being stolen to be
used in future crimes. Unauthorized access and use of a
firearm commonly occurs when the person with lawful possession
of the firearm is away from the residence where the firearm is
stored and the firearm was not safely secured. Although
existing law requires firearm owners to possess a firearm
safety device or other safe storage method, use of the device
or method is not mandatory.
"Any firearm safe storage method that reduces unintentional
firearm injury and death, self-inflicted gunshot wounds,
firearm theft and unauthorized use of a firearm, that results
in the firearm being use in a crime, ought to be studied and
considered to increase public safety. Senate Bill 108 will
direct the California Department of Justice to study safe
firearm storage methods and recommend policy based on
objective facts."
2)Practical Considerations : This bill requires DOJ to study,
among other things, the effectiveness of the San Francisco
ordinance in preventing instances of unintentional firearm
injury and death, self-inflicted gunshot wounds, firearm
theft, and the unauthorized use of firearms which resulted in
a crime. The bill also requires an estimation of the effects
in preventing those types of incidences if the ordinance were
to be enacted as state law.
While in theory the type of analysis called for in the study may
be possible, there are questions about whether or not there is
sufficient data available to conduct such a study. To
establish the effectiveness of the San Francisco ordinance,
one needs the data on rates of such incidences before and
after enactment of the ordinance. Is this data available? Is
there data available on the control variables to account for
alternative explanations? Is there data available, through
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police reports or otherwise, on the details of the incidents?
For example, will there be data on whether a firearm was
stored in compliance with the ordinance or in some other
manner? Will one be able to link a stolen firearm to one
having been used in another crime? Is there data on whether
or not San Francisco residents are following the regulation?
Additionally, will this data be available for other local
ordinances which are supposed to be part of the comparison?
Finally, does DOJ staff have the requisite expertise/academic
background to conduct the analysis, or alternatively, should
the study be conducted by another agency?
3)Effectiveness of the Firearm Storage Laws : A study published
in the Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection, and Critical Care
in 2006, looked at whether Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws
reduced unintentional firearm deaths among children. The
study found the states that had laws concerning the storage of
firearms experienced fewer unintentional shooting deaths among
children younger than age 14 compared with states not enacting
such laws. However, in a comparison group of older adults
ranging from ages 55 to 74 (a population less likely to have
young children living in the home), there was no indication
that safe-storage laws had an effect on unintentional firearm
death rates. (See .)
As noted above, California currently has child access
prevention laws. The Department of Justice has informed this
Committee that in 2012, there were 33 arrests for criminal
storage of a firearm in the first degree. These arrests
resulted in one conviction. In the same year, there were four
arrests for criminal storage of a firearm in the second
degree; however, none of these arrests resulted in conviction.
4)Related Legislation :
a) SB 363 (Wright) requires anyone living with a person who
is prohibited from possessing a firearm due to having been
found to be a danger to themselves or others, as specified,
to keep any firearms in the home secured. SB 363 is
pending hearing by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
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b) AB 231 (Ting) creates the crime of criminal storage in
the third degree, which imposes liability if a person
negligently stores or leaves a loaded firearm in a place
where he or she knows, or reasonably should know, that a
child is likely to access it. AB 231 is pending hearing by
the Senate Appropriations Committee.
c) AB 500 (Ammiano) establishes safe gun storage
requirements when persons prohibited from owning a gun live
in a household where a gun is present. AB 500 is pending
hearing by the Senate Public Safety Committee.
5)Prior Legislation :
a) SB 9 (Soto), Chapter 126, Statutes of 2011, expanded the
scope of the storage of firearm laws by changing the
definition of a child from a person under the age of 16 to
a person under the age of 18, and created a misdemeanor for
any person who negligently allows a child to access a
firearm if the child then takes the firearm to school.
b) AB 1142 (Soto), of the 1999-2000 Legislative Session,
proposed to raise the age of a child to under age 18 for
storage of firearm laws, and would have added the
misdemeanor for firearm storage that results in a child
taking the firearm to school or a school-related activity.
AB 1142 was vetoed.
c) AB 491 (Keeley), Chapter 460, Statutes of 1997, amended
the criminal storage laws by changing the definition of a
child from under age 14 to under age 16, and added the
misdemeanor for a person who stores a weapon capable of
being concealed on his or her premises which a child then
takes off of the premises.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None
Opposition
None
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Analysis Prepared by : Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744