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Coalition Against Gun Violence |
Originally appeared in Newsletter Vol. x,
No. y, December 1999
Strongest Handgun Safety Law
California now has America’s strongest handgun safety law. The bill, signed by Governor Gray Davis September 24, 2003, will require semiautomatic pistols to have both a chamber load indicator that clearly shows when the gun is loaded and a magazine disconnect device to prevent the gun from firing when the ammunition magazine is removed. These safety devices will have to be implemented by 2007. Gun control organizations believe this law will save lives and prevent tragic accidents, which often happen to children who “play” with what they believe is an unloaded gun.
As Assemblymember Hannah-Beth Jackson Would Say: This is a No-Brainer!
A gun safety bill authored by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, (D-Santa Barbara) was signed into law on September 24, 2003 by Governor Gray Davis. Assembly Bill 1290 prohibits anyone who is the subject of emergency protective orders for stalking or restraining orders for elder abuse from owning, purchasing, possessing or receiving a firearm with the order is in effect.
Gun Dealers and Distributors Agree to Reforms to Curb Illegal Market in California
Twelve California cities and counties agreed to a significant settlement that will change the way five gun industry defendants do business in this state. The gun industry defendants—two California gun dealers and three gun distributors who sold guns into California—agreed to take steps that go above and beyond current federal and state law to prevent firearms from being sold into the underground market in California.
“These settlements show, beyond a doubt, that the gun industry can do much more to curb the deadly flow of guns from retail stores into the underground market,” said Dennis Henigan, Director of the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. He went on to say that “There is no question that the lawsuits brought by California communities have begun to pay dividends for the safety and security of their citizens.
The twelve California jurisdictions with suits against the gun industry include: Los Angeles County and Los Angeles, Inglewood, Compton, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Berkeley, East Palo Alto, Alameda County and San Mateo County.
As an example of the reforms accepted by the gun industry defendants, Trader Sports, a gun dealer located near Oakland, CA agreed that it would take the following extra steps as part of a permanent Consent Decree to be administered by the Court:
• Not sell firearms at gun shows;
• Implement an enhanced inventory tracking plan to ensure that firearms are not lost or stolen;
• Annually train all employees how to recognize and block sales to straw purchasers;
• Adopt as the store’s policy “to go beyond the law in verifying the identity of the actual purchaser of a firearm”; and
• Maintain electronically all firearm trace requests conducted by the BATF and provide that information, upon request, to gun manufacturers and distributors, which would enable them to monitor the conduct of the dealers who sell their firearms.
The dealers and distributors agreed to the reforms at a time when the gun industry and the NRA are pressuring Congress to enact a bill, S.659, to give sweeping legal immunity to the gun industry. Proponents of the bill have decried the lawsuits filed by the cities and counties as “frivolous.” Mr. Henigan believes an apology is due to the plaintiffs, “Only because these jurisdictions were able to assert their legal rights against gun sellers were these reforms possible. Exempting the gun industry from the rules of law that apply to everyone else will only ensure the ‘business as usual’ by gun sellers that supply the criminal market with deadly weaponry.”
The Coalition Against Gun Violence supports the renewal and strengthening of the Assault Weapon Ban.
We urge you to support the Lautenberg and McCarthy Bills (S.1431 & H.R. 2938) which was co-authored by CA Sen. Barbara Boxer. Go to: www.banassaultweapons.org
for the latest information.
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Copyright © 1999-2007 Coalition Against Gun Violence. All rights reserved.
A Project of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
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