Senate Bill No. 1006

Introduced by Senator Wolk

(Principal coauthor: Senator Pan)

(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Dodd and Quirk)

(Coauthors: Senators Allen, Glazer, Hall, Hancock, and Hertzberg)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Baker, Cooper, Cristina Garcia, Gonzalez, Levine, McCarty, and Santiago)

February 10, 2016

An act to add Title 12.2 (commencing with Section 14230) to Part 4 of the Penal Code, relating to firearm violence research.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1006, as introduced, Wolk. Firearm Violence Research Center.

Existing law establishes and funds various research centers and programs in conjunction with the University of California.

This bill would enact the California Firearm Violence Research Act. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature that the Regents of the University of California establish the California Firearm Violence Research Center to research firearm-related violence. The bill would declare legislative intent regarding the principles by which the university would administer the center and award research funds, as prescribed. The bill would require the university to report, on or before December 31, 2017, and every 5 years thereafter, specified information regarding the activities of the center and information pertaining to research grants. The bill would require the center to provide copies of its research publications to the Legislature. The bill would specify that its provisions would apply to the university only to the extent that the Regents, by resolution, make any of the provisions of the bill applicable to the university.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Title 12.2 (commencing with Section 14230) is
added to Part 4 of the Penal Code, to read:

 

Title 12.2.  California Firearm Violence
Research Act

 

14230.  

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Firearm violence is a significant public health and public
safety problem in California and nationwide. Nationally, rates of
fatal firearm violence have remained essentially unchanged for
more than a decade, as declines in homicide have been offset by
increases in suicide.

(b) California has been the site of some of the nation’s most
infamous mass shootings, such as those at a McDonald’s in San
Ysidro, at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, near UC
Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, and most recently at the Inland
Regional Center in San Bernardino. Yet public mass shootings
account for less than 1 percent of firearm violence. In 2014, there
were 2,939 firearm-related deaths in California, including 1,582
suicides, 1,230 homicides, 89 deaths by legal intervention, and 38
unintentional or undetermined deaths. In communities where
firearm violence is a frequent occurrence, the very structure of
daily life is affected.

(c) Nationwide, the annual societal cost of firearm violence was
estimated at 229 billion dollars ($229,000,000,000) in 2012. A
significant share of this burden falls on California. In 2013, the
Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development noted that
government-sponsored insurance programs covered nearly
two-thirds of the costs of hospitalizations for firearm assaults in
California, and about half the costs of hospitalizations for
unintentional injuries or those resulting from deliberate self-harm.

(d) California has been a leader in responding to this continuing
crisis. However, although rates of fatal firearm violence in
California are well below average for the 50 states, they are not
low enough.

(e) Too little is known about firearm violence and its prevention.
This is in substantial part because too little research has been done.
The need for more research and more sophisticated research has
repeatedly been emphasized. Because there has been so little
support for research, only a small number of trained investigators
are available.

(f) When confronted by other major health and social problems,
California and the nation have mounted effective responses,
coupling an expanded research effort with policy reform in the
public’s interest. Motor vehicle accidents, cancer, heart disease,
and tobacco use are all examples of the benefits of this approach.

(g) Federal funding for firearm violence research through the
Centers for Disease Control has been virtually eliminated by
Congress since 1996, leaving a major gap that must be filled by
other sources.

14231.  

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a center
for research into firearm-related violence. It is the intent of the
Legislature that the center be administered by the University of
California pursuant to the following principles:

(1) Interdisciplinary work of the center shall address the
following:

(A) The nature of firearm violence, including individual and
societal determinants of risk for involvement in firearm violence,
whether as a victim or a perpetrator.

(B) The individual, community, and societal consequences of
firearm violence.

(C) Prevention and treatment of firearm violence at the
individual, community, and societal levels.

(2) The center shall conduct basic, translational, and
transformative research with a mission to provide the scientific
evidence on which sound firearm violence prevention policies and
programs can be based. Its research shall extend to firearm violence
as a form of terrorism.

(3) The center shall work on a continuing basis with
policymakers in the Legislature and state agencies to identify,
implement, and evaluate innovative firearm violence prevention
policies and programs.

(4) To help ensure a long-term and successful effort to
understand and prevent firearm violence, the center shall recruit
and provide specialized training opportunities for new researchers,
including experienced investigators in related fields who are
beginning work on firearm violence, young investigators who have
completed their education, postdoctoral scholars, doctoral students,
and undergraduates.

(5) It is the intent of the Legislature to support the center’s
activities by funding the center with an appropriation to a Firearm
Violence Research Center Account. The center may also seek
additional federal, state, and private funds.

(6) As a supplement to its own research, the center shall
administer a grants program for research on firearm violence,
funded through a research account in the Firearm Violence
Research Center Account. All research funds shall be awarded on
the basis of scientific merit as determined by an open, competitive
peer review process that assures objectivity, consistency, and high
quality. All qualified investigators, regardless of institutional
affiliation, shall have equal access and opportunity to compete for
the funds in the research account.

(7) The peer review process for the selection of grants awarded
under this program shall be modeled on the process used by the
National Institutes of Health in its grantmaking process.

(8) Awardees shall be reimbursed for the full cost, both direct
and indirect, of conducting the sponsored research consistent with
federal guidelines governing all federal research grants and
contracts.

(b) It is further the intent of the Legislature that on or before
December 31, 2017, and every five years thereafter, the University
of California transmit programmatic, as well as financial, reports
to the state, including a report on the grants made, pending grants,
program accomplishments, and the future direction of the program.
The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of
the Government Code.

(c) Subject to the conditions and requirements established
elsewhere in statute, state agencies, including but not limited to
the Department of Justice, the State Department of Public Health,
the State Department of Health Care Services, the Office of
Statewide Health Planning and Development, and the Department
of Motor Vehicles, shall provide to the center, upon proper request,
the data necessary for the center to conduct its research.

(d) The center and all recipients of grants supported by the
research account shall provide copies of their research publications
to the Legislature and to agencies supplying data used in the
conduct of that research as soon as is practicable following
publication. These submissions shall be submitted in compliance
with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(e) Toward these ends, the Legislature requests that the Regents
of the University of California establish a Firearm Violence
Research Center and administer the center and grant program
pursuant to and consistent with the principles and goals stated
herein.

14232.  

This article shall apply to the University of California
only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California,
by resolution, make any of these provisions applicable to the
university.