BILL NUMBER: SB 746	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator DeSaulnier

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2009

   An act relating to gun safety.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 746, as introduced, DeSaulnier. Gun Safety Board.
   Existing law establishes various programs to improve public
health.
   This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would create, within the State Department of Public
Health, the Gun Safety Board, and charge it with various duties in
regard to reducing gun violence. The bill would state findings and
declarations of the Legislature pertaining to these matters.
   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.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Every day in the United States, eight children and teenagers
are killed and more than 47 are injured by firearms.
   (b) In 2005, 595 California children and youths under 21 years of
age were killed with firearms and 1,554 California children and
youths under 21 years of age were hospitalized with nonfatal firearms
injuries.
   (c) One-third of children in the United States live in homes with
firearms, and almost half of these homes keep the gun unlocked.
   (d) Sixty-eight percent of the attackers in school shootings
obtained the firearm from their own home or that of a relative.
   (e) The medical costs of gun violence place a terrible burden on
health services, governments, and taxpayers.
   (f) In 1995 the medical cost of gun violence nationwide was four
billion dollars ($4,000,000,000), and the public paid for about 85
percent of that amount.
   (g) Including indirect costs, gun violence costs the United States
over one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000) annually.
   (h) In 2003, the medical cost of nonfatal, hospital admitted,
firearm injuries in California was almost two hundred million dollars
($200,000,000).
  SEC. 2.  (a) (1) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would create, within the State Department of Public
Health, a Gun Safety Board.
   (2) The purpose of the board would be to oversee and implement a
strategy to reduce the incidents of gun violence and accidental
shootings, including the number of homicides, injuries, suicides and
deaths in order to save money on gunshot related deaths, nonfatal
injuries, medical costs, incarceration and the devastation to society
as a whole.
   (b) It is the intent of the Legislature that any legislation that
is enacted creating the board would also require that any program
implemented by the board or grants provided by the board would do the
following:
   (1) Demonstrate achievement of program goals and measurable
improvements in gun violence. A method is needed for documenting the
logical connection between provided services and avoided costly
crisis intervention services and negative outcomes. Data collected
should reflect improved outcomes consistent with the mission of the
board.
   (2) Demonstrate a systematic approach to achieving improved
outcomes, including evidence of effective partnerships with other
agencies, thereby avoiding costly inefficiencies, fragmentation, or
duplication.
   (3) Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of creating
diversified funding sources for prevention and early intervention
services and knowledge of how to leverage or braid eligible
categorical dollars and private funds to maximize dollars available
for prevention and early intervention programs, including pursuing
necessary relationships and implementing appropriate program
documentation to expand eligibility for categorical state and federal
dollars.
   (c) It is the intent of the Legislature that any legislation
enacted to create the board would also require the board to do all of
the following:
   (1) Implement programs, and adopt standards, rules, and
regulations in accordance with the provisions of this act to reduce
gun violence.
   (2) Conduct research into the causes of, and solutions to, gun
violence, and systematically attack the serious problems caused by
gun violence.
   (3) Provide grant money to reduce gun violence.
   (d) The board would do both of the following:
   (1) Contract for technical advisory services and other services as
may be necessary for the performance of its powers and duties.
   (2) Appoint advisory groups and committees as it requires.
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature that any legislation
enacted to create the board would also provide funding for the board
by imposing a twenty-five dollar ($25) fee on all retail sales of
firearms, or transfers of firearms between persons who are not
licensed firearms dealers, and that moneys generated pursuant to
those provisions would be deposited in the Gun Safety Board Special
Fund.