BILL NUMBER: SB 1006 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
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.