BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SJR 20 Hearing Date: April 5, 2016
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|Author: |Hall |
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|Version: |March 28, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant:|JRD |
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Subject: Gun Violence: Research
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation:None known
Support: Americans for Responsible Solutions; Bend the Arc;
Brotherhood Crusade; California Black Health Network;
California School Boards Association; California
Chapter of the American College of Emergency
Physicians; California Chapters of the Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence; California Children's
Hospital Association; California Communities United
Institute; California State Conference of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People;
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science;
City of Long Beach; Coalition Against Gun Violence;
Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County;
Courage Campaign; Doctors for America - California;
Eric Garcetti, Mayor of the City of Los Angeles; Law
Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Health Officers
Association of California; Nevada County Democrats;
Rainbow Services, Ltd.; Peace Over Violence;
Physicians for Social Responsibility, San Francisco
Bay Area Chapter; Violence Prevention Coalition of
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Greater Los Angeles; Youth Alive!; two individuals
Opposition:Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership; National Rifle
Association
PURPOSE
The purpose of this resolution is to urge the Congress of the
United States to promptly lift the prohibition against publicly
funded scientific research on the causes of gun violence and its
effects on public health, and to appropriate funds to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other relevant
agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services to
conduct that research.
Existing law generally regulates the use, possession and sale of
deadly weapons in California. (Penal Code § 16000, et. seq.)
This resolution states:
Every day, gun violence destroys lives, families, and
communities;
From 2002 to 2013, inclusive, California lost 38,576
individuals to gun violence, of which 2,258 were children;
In 2013 alone, guns were used to kill 2,900
Californians, including 251 children and teenagers, and
hospitalized another 6,035 Californians for nonfatal
gunshot wounds, including 1,275 children and teenagers;
There were over 350 recorded mass shootings in the
United States in 2015;
Since 1996, Congress has adopted annual policy riders,
known as the "Dickey Amendment" and "Rehberg Amendment,"
that effectively prohibit the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies under the
federal Department of Health and Human Services from
conducting publicly funded scientific research on the
causes of gun violence or its effects on public health;
The author of the original Dickey Amendment, former
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Representative Jay Dickey (R-AR), has stated repeatedly
that he regrets offering the amendment and thinks it should
be repealed;
Despite Representative Dickey's comments and President
Obama's executive action in 2013 directing the CDC to
resume gun violence research, Congress has provided no
funding, and the restrictive language remains in place;
Since 1996, the federal government has spent $240
million per year on traffic safety research, which has
saved 360,000 lives since 1970;
During the same period there has been almost no publicly
funded research on gun violence, which kills the same
number of people every year;
Recently, 110 Members of the Congress of the United
States signed a letter urging the leadership of the House
of Representatives to end the longstanding ban on federal
funding for gun violence research, and over 2,000 doctors
in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia did the
same;
Although Members of Congress may disagree about how best
to respond to the problem of gun violence, we should be
able to agree that a response should be informed by sound
scientific evidence; and,
Whether it is horrific headline-generating massacres or
unseen violence that occurs every day - the innocent child
gunned down in crossfire, the mother murdered during a
domestic dispute, or the young life cut tragically short
during the heat of a petty argument - the call to action is
now clear.
This resolution resolves by the Senate and Assembly of the State
of California jointly:
That a comprehensive evidence-based federal approach to
reducing and preventing gun violence is needed to ensure
that our communities are safe from gun violence;
That federal research is crucial to saving lives, having
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driven policy to save lives from motor vehicle accidents,
sudden infant death syndrome, lead poisoning, and countless
other public health crises;
That the Legislature urges the Congress of the United
States to promptly lift the prohibition against publicly
funded scientific research on the causes of gun violence
and its effects on public health, and to appropriate funds
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other
relevant agencies under the Department of Health and Human
Services to conduct that research; and,
That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the President and Vice President of the
United States, to the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to
each Senator and Representative from California in the
Congress of the United States, and to the author for
appropriate distribution.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the past several years this Committee has scrutinized
legislation referred to its jurisdiction for any potential
impact on prison overcrowding. Mindful of the United States
Supreme Court ruling and federal court orders relating to the
state's ability to provide a constitutional level of health care
to its inmate population and the related issue of prison
overcrowding, this Committee has applied its "ROCA" policy as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress in reducing prison
overcrowding.
On February 10, 2014, the federal court ordered California to
reduce its in-state adult institution population to 137.5% of
design capacity by February 28, 2016, as follows:
143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and,
137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.
In December of 2015 the administration reported that as "of
December 9, 2015, 112,510 inmates were housed in the State's 34
adult institutions, which amounts to 136.0% of design bed
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capacity, and 5,264 inmates were housed in out-of-state
facilities. The current population is 1,212 inmates below the
final court-ordered population benchmark of 137.5% of design bed
capacity, and has been under that benchmark since February
2015." (Defendants' December 2015 Status Report in Response to
February 10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge
Court, Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).) One
year ago, 115,826 inmates were housed in the State's 34 adult
institutions, which amounted to 140.0% of design bed capacity,
and 8,864 inmates were housed in out-of-state facilities.
(Defendants' December 2014 Status Report in Response to February
10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge Court, Coleman
v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).)
While significant gains have been made in reducing the prison
population, the state must stabilize these advances and
demonstrate to the federal court that California has in place
the "durable solution" to prison overcrowding "consistently
demanded" by the court. (Opinion Re: Order Granting in Part and
Denying in Part Defendants' Request For Extension of December
31, 2013 Deadline, NO. 2:90-cv-0520 LKK DAD (PC), 3-Judge Court,
Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (2-10-14). The Committee's
consideration of bills that may impact the prison population
therefore will be informed by the following questions:
Whether a proposal erodes a measure which has contributed
to reducing the prison population;
Whether a proposal addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy;
Whether a proposal addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
Whether a proposal corrects a constitutional problem or
legislative drafting error; and
Whether a proposal proposes penalties which are
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1.Need for This Resolution
According to the Author:
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Every day, gun violence destroys lives, families and
communities. From 2002 to 2013, California lost 38,576
individuals to gun violence. In 2013 alone, guns were used
to kill 2,900 Californians, including 251 children and
teens. That year, at least 6,035 others were hospitalized
or treated in emergency rooms for non-fatal gunshot wounds,
including 1,275 children and teens.
Since 1996, and in spite of these staggering numbers, the
United States Congress has continually adopted annual
policy riders known as the "Dickey Amendment" and "Rehberg
Amendment." These riders have effectively prohibited the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other
agencies, from conducting publicly funded scientific
research on the causes of gun violence or its effects on
public health.
During the same period, the federal government has spent
$240 million a year on traffic safety research which kills
the same number of people as gun violence every year. This
lack of research has made it more difficult to objectively
assess the public health impacts of gun violence and find
ways to reduce the number of innocent lives lost every
year.
A comprehensive evidence-based federal approach to reducing
and preventing gun violence is needed to ensure that our
communities are safe. Federal research is crucial to
saving lives from motor vehicle accidents, sudden infant
death syndrome, lead poisoning and countless other public
crises. It is time for Congress to lift the prohibition on
publicly funded research, and treat gun violence as the
public health crisis that it is.
2.Effect of This Resolution
According to the American Psychological Association:
In 1993, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
published an article by Arthur Kellerman and colleagues,
"Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home,"
which presented the results of research funded by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study
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found that keeping a gun in the home was strongly and
independently associated with an increased risk of
homicide. The article concluded that rather than confer
protection, guns kept in the home are associated with an
increase in the risk of homicide by a family member or
intimate acquaintance. . .
The 1993 NEJM article received considerable media
attention, and the National Rifle Association (NRA)
responded by campaigning for the elimination of the center
that had funded the study, the CDC's National Center for
Injury Prevention. The center itself survived, but Congress
included language in the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated
Appropriations Bill . . . for Fiscal Year 1997 that "none
of the funds made available for injury prevention and
control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
may be used to advocate or promote gun control." Referred
to as the Dickey amendment after its author, former U.S.
House Representative Jay Dickey (R-AR), this language did
not explicitly ban research on gun violence. However,
Congress also took $2.6 million from the CDC's budget - the
amount the CDC had invested in firearm injury research the
previous year - and earmarked the funds for prevention of
traumatic brain injury.
(Christine Jamieson, Gun violence research: History of the
federal funding freeze, American Psychological Association,
February 2013,
http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.aspx.)
This resolution urges the Congress of the United States to
promptly lift the prohibition against publicly funded scientific
research on the causes of gun violence and its effects on public
health, and to appropriate funds to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and other relevant agencies under the
Department of Health and Human Services to conduct that
research.
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