Governor Newsom signs bipartisan legislation to strengthen California’s gun laws

✅ PROTECT KIDS FROM GUNS by strengthening safe storage requirements and creating stricter penalties for gun owners whose guns are accessed by a child, resulting in death or injury to themselves or others. Strengthens safety measures to protect students during active threats.

✅ PREVENT GUN-RELATED HATE CRIMES by building on California’s red flag laws and creating more training for law enforcement officers and courts to assess and identify extremism and potential for hate-based crimes, allowing more effective use of restraining orders. 

✅ SAFEGUARD VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE by creating more training and tools for child custody caseworkers and law enforcement officers to determine whether abusers may have access to guns. 

✅ PROVIDE MORE TOOLS TO KEEP GUNS OUT OF DANGEROUS HANDS by restricting animal abusers and persons found incompetent to stand trial from possessing firearms, as well as by strengthening California’s red flag laws.

✅ INCREASE INFORMATION-SHARING TO CLOSE ENFORCEMENT GAPS by making it easier for California courts to ensure that people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others no longer have access to firearms. 

California’s history of gun violence prevention

California has long led the way in enacting commonsense and effective protections against gun violence. California’s gun safety laws save lives. The Golden State is ranked #1 for gun safety and last year experienced a gun death rate 43% lower than the national average. In comparison, Texas and Florida, who ranked 31st and 24th respectively in gun law strength, had firearm mortality rates more than 1.5 times that of California. Since the early 1990s, California has cut its gun death rate in half. By 2022, California had the 7th lowest gun death rate in the country. If other states’ gun death mortality rates matched California’s, an estimated 140,000 Americans would still be alive today. 

Nationwide, firearms kill more children and adolescents than any other cause. Compared to the rest of the nation, California has made substantial long-term progress in reducing per capita rates of youth firearm homicide. 

Preliminary CDC data showed that in 2022, California’s age-adjusted per capita firearm homicide rate for youth under 25 was 45% below the rate recorded for the rest of the U.S. By contrast, the rest of the U.S. experienced a 37% increase in youth gun homicide rates over the same period. The next two most populous states after California – Florida and Texas – experienced substantial increases over this same period, with youth homicide rates rising by 24% in Florida and 49% in Texas. 

The following measures have been signed into law:

• AB 960 by Assemblymember Devon Mathis (R-Porterville) – School safety: web-based or app-based school safety programs
• AB 1252 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) – Office of Gun Violence Prevention
• AB 1858 by Assemblymember Christopher Ward (D-San Diego) – Comprehensive school safety plans: active shooters: armed assailants: drills
• AB 1974 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) – Family conciliation courts: evaluator training (signed earlier this year)
• AB 2565 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – School facilities: interior locks
• AB 2621 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) – Law enforcement training
• AB 2629 by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) – Firearms: prohibited persons
• AB 2642 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Elections: intimidation
• AB 2739 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) – Firearms
• AB 2759 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine)
• AB 2822 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) – Domestic violence
• AB 2842 by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo) – Firearms
• AB 2907 by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) – Firearms: restrained persons
• AB 2917 by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) – Firearms: restraining orders
• AB 3064 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) –  Firearms
• AB 3072 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) — Child custody: ex parte orders (signed earlier this year)
• AB 3083 by Assemblymember Tom Lackey —  Domestic violence: protective orders: background checks
• SB 53 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) – Firearms: storage
• SB 758 by Senator Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana) – Firearms
• SB 899 by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) – Protective orders: firearms
• SB 902 by Senator Richard D. Roth (D-Riverside) – Firearms: public safety
• SB 965 by Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) – Firearms
• SB 1002 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) –Firearms: prohibited persons
• SB 1019 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) – Firearms: destruction