Lawmakers push for new gun laws

Bills, 10 in all, would include expanding restraining orders and strengthening tracing of weapons

“The national dialogue is definitely shifting. I am hopeful that change can actually occur, but we can only control what we can control here.” — Assemblyman Phil Ting

In the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting that left 17 people dead on Valentine’s Day, state lawmakers are introducing 10 new bills to increase gun control in California — home to some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

The bills would include expanding gun violence restraining orders and strengthening gun tracing. One proposal would expand California’s definition of an assault weapon — which gun owners must register with the state — to include high-powered semi-automatic rifles without fixed magazines. Most .22 rifles would be excluded, however. The current definition requires the rifle to have things like a pistol grip or other military-style fixtures.

Assemblyman Phil Ting, a Democrat who represents San Francisco, is reintroducing a proposal to allow mental health workers, employers, co-workers, and school staff to petition a court to temporarily restrict a person’s access to guns if they believe the person is in danger of harming himself or herself or others. Right now, just family members and law enforcement officers have that ability. Nearly 90 restraining orders were issued in 2016, when the original policy took effect.

“This is a tool that allows regular people to take action in a responsible way,” Ting told the Mercury News Monday.

Ting had proposed the idea a couple of years ago, but Gov. Jerry Brown rejected it at the time, suggesting it was premature. Another bill to expand the definition of an assault weapon failed in 2016.

Compared to the rest of the country, the state has relatively tough gun laws, including a mandatory 10-day waiting period before a gun dealer can give a gun to a buyer.

But lawmakers like Ting say there is renewed appetite for even tighter gun laws after the mass shooting on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Law enforcement agencies would store information on recovered firearms in a state database under a bill by Assemblyman Bill Quirk of Hayward. The state would require background checks for anyone buying a key part that is used to assemble an assault weapon at home under a bill by Assemblyman Mike Gipson of Carson.

Some gun owners are pushing back.

“I think that’s a dangerous and irrational response to the school shooting in Florida,” said Brandon Combs, president of the Californiabased Firearms Policy Coalition, in response to the wave of proposed legislation.

Lawmakers should focus instead on improving access to mental health care and school security, he said.

“If schools are important, then why don’t we treat them like airports?” Combs said.

Still there is a growing chorus of lawmakers around the country calling for tighter rules on who can legally purchase guns. Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese is among them.

On Tuesday, Cortese said he plans to ask the Board of Supervisors to “reaffirm” Santa Clara County’s efforts to prevent gun deaths and propose a summit on gun violence and mental health.

The supervisor would like to see an expansion of background checks to include mental health records. If someone voluntarily purchases a gun, he said, they should submit to a mental health background check that would allow authorities to “figure out whether there’s a red flag there.”

The aim, Cortese said, would be to prevent people with severe mental health issues from buying firearms.

“There’s just not been an effort to incorporate that information,” he said.

The suspected gunman in the Florida shooting was a former student who reportedly suffered from mental health issues.

Cortese acknowledged that enacting new gun policy at the local level is challenging, but said if Santa Clara County can devise a way to include mental health in background checks while also respecting people’s privacy, he thinks other counties will follow suit.

And while Cortese is hopeful the state and Congress will pass new gun laws, he wants the county to host a summit where residents and officials and others can talk and try to find some “common denominators” on gun laws locally.

Cortese said he would also ask the board to formally endorse the March for Our Lives movement, a student-organized campaign for stricter gun laws that has ballooned into a national effort.

“Youth revolutions are powerful things,” he said, “and they only come around every so often.”

There is “cause for optimism” that the national conversation around gun violence is shifting, Cortese said, noting that airlines and other companies have taken the unusual step of ending partnerships and discounts with the National Rifle Association following the Parkland shooting earlier this month.

“The national dialogue is definitely shifting,” Ting said. “I am hopeful that change can actually occur, but we can only control what we can control here, and I feel confident we’re taking action here to protect our citizens from gun violence.”