UPDATE: Call your legislators! “Yes” to actions on local, state and federal gun legislation.

Watching a war unfold in front of us, it’s easy to forget the seeds of violence here. Now is the time to create urgency, both in the CA legislature and in Congress, for these bills to be passed. Even if you’ve called on them before, call again. Remind your legislators that these are the bills that save lives!

• UPDATE: Action #1: LOCAL – AB-1769 prohibits gun shows at the Ventura County Fair and Event Center.
• UPDATE Action #2: STATE – SB.915 prohibits gun shows at all CA state-owned property.
• Action #3: FEDERAL – Pass national background check laws and close the “Charleston Loophole.“
• Action #4: FEDERAL – For those who didn’t come home from school that Valentine’s Day, and all those before and since…it’s time to pass H.R.1808/S.736 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2021

UPDATE: Action #1: LOCAL – AB-1769 prohibits gun shows at the Ventura County Fair and Event Center – This bill will be heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee March 8th, at 9am.

AB-1769 has been referred to the Assembly Public Safety Committee and will be heard on Tuesday, March 8 at 9:00. (Here are the members – see if any friends live in these districts and have them call/email their legislators.) After completing a one-time registration for an “individual” account here (https://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/), you type in the bill # and the site will direct you to the right committee where you can write a comment or upload a letter. (See #11 and #12)

Watch the Hearing Livestream: https://www.assembly.ca.gov/media/126-video/audio Tues. March 8th, 9 am

Why ban gun shows?: Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine: “Gun shows are designed for one purpose — to sell and distribute guns in our community and every time a gun is sold, it increases the chances of another act of violence.” He added that gun shows are “a common venue for straw purchases” of weapons that later end up in the wrong hands. Ghost guns, the term for untraceable partially assembled weapons sold as kits, are also a big seller at gun shows and the ready-to-assemble kits have become one of the biggest sellers at the events. “The state of California should not be profiting off the sale of guns. This is blood money.” We agree.

(Ventura County Star) “Assemblymember Steve Bennett, D-Ventura, and State Sen. Monique Limon, D-Santa Barbara, introduced AB-1769 (Firearms: prohibited places) Wednesday targeting the long-running battle over the fairgrounds shows held several times a year by Utah-based Crossroads of the West. If successful, the ban would likely take effect on Jan. 1, 2023.” This bill specifically prohibits gun shows at the Ventura County Fair and Event Center.

UPDATE: Action #2: STATE – SB.915 prohibits gun shows at all CA state-owned property – this bill will be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee March 8th, at 1:30 pm

(Ventura County Star) “…SB-915 (Firearms: state property) by Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, takes a broader approach, prohibiting gun shows on all state property across California, including 73 fairgrounds. The bill is Min’s second attempt at a statewide ban.” The owner of Crossroads of the West gun show has already threatened to sue, but as Sen. Min has stated “There is nothing in the Constitution that would imply the state of California has to use its property to sell guns.”

SB-915 has been referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee. The hearing date is also March 8th. (Here are the members – see if any friends live in these districts and have them call/email their legislators.) After completing a one-time registration for an “individual” account here (https://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/), you type in the bill # and the site will direct you to the right committee where you can write a comment or upload a letter. (See #11 and #12)

Watch the livestream of the proceedings: https://www.senate.ca.gov Or to listen only, for this hearing in Senate Committee Room 4203, please dial 1- 888-251-2909 and use Access Code 7362832. Tues., March 8th 1:30 pm

Action #3: FEDERAL – Tell your senators to finish this – pass national background check laws and close the “Charleston Loophole.“

National background check laws, such as H.R. 8 – Background Check Expansion Act are wildly popular across political lines, with a recent poll showing 84% of voters, including over three-quarters of Republicans, 82% of Independents, and 90% of legal gun owners support a law requiring a background check for all firearm purchases.

Here are the definitions of these popular bills that are now stuck in the Senate:

• H.R. 8 – the Background Check Act/S.529, the Background Check Expansion Act, (the Senate’s version of H.R.8,) expands the limits of the Brady Background Checks law to cover all firearm transactions. H.R.8 passed the House last year on 3/11/2021 with bipartisan support.
• H.R. 1446 – Enhanced Background Checks Act, closes the “Charleston Loophole” which allows thousands of prohibited individuals to purchase firearms every year. It passed the House on 3/10/2021. There is no equivalent Senate version.

Action #4: For those who didn’t come home from school that Valentine’s Day, and all those before and since…it’s time to pass H.R.1808/S.736 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2021

Quote: Ivy Schamis, teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the massacre. “Valentine’s Day should be a day of love and laughter, but on February 14, 2018, it was the opposite for me and my students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Today marks four years since a former student ambushed our building with an AR-15.”

Valentine’s Day was the 4th anniversary of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed the lives of 14 students and 3 educators. (President Biden’s statement here) In their names and in the names of others whose lives were cut short by our country’s shameful epidemic of gun violence, we have a responsibility to demand change.

“An AR-15 is not for hunting, it’s for killing.” – Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. after the massacre at Parkland.
Limiting access to such weapons is not new.

President Reagan banned the sale and ownership of machine guns made after May 1986, and required the owners of older versions to pass background checks, obtain signed approval from their local police chief or sheriff and pay a $200 federal tax. In 1994, he joined former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to to support a pending bill banning assault weapons. They wrote, “While we recognize that assault weapon legislation will not stop all assault weapon crime, statistics prove that we can dry up the supply of these guns, making them less accessible to criminals. We urge you to listen to the American public and to the law enforcement community and support a ban on the further manufacture of these weapons.“

Then-President Bill Clinton signed the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, commonly called the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which was a part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. It expired in 2004.

Was the 10-year time-out on assault weapons effective in reducing public mass shootings? The latest data says “YES!” (northwesternnow)(law.stanford.edu)(northwestern)(NYTimes)(The Hill) This will continue to become clearer now that the Dickey Amendment, which prevented gun violence research, was removed in 2018.

• Nikolas Cruz, being over 18 and with no criminal record, passed his instant background check and lawfully bought the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle he used to murder 17 of his Parkland classmates and teachers in under 6 minutes on Valentine’s Day, 2018. “The purchase of the assault weapon is often the final step in the preparation and execution of a mass shooting,” stated Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. 
• As COVID recedes from the headlines, experts expect more mass shootings. “The previous news cycles sucked the oxygen out of mass shooters as they are looking to be newsworthy, said Post. “Now there is room on the national agenda for mass shooters.”

Resources:

This is a great overview video…

Gun Violence Archives https://www.gunviolencearchive.org