A Town Known For Garlic Grapples With Grief After Shooting

Speaker 1: 00:00 The deadly mass shooting in Gilroy. Sunday has raised concerns about the effectiveness of California gun laws. Investigators say the weapon used by the Gilroy shooter is considered an assault rifle under California law and could not be legally purchased in the state, but it is legal in Nevada where the shooter apparently bought it. Governor Gavin Newsome addressed the issue of transporting guns across state lines and remarks about the Gilroy shooting yesterday. Speaker 2: 00:27 You know, I can't put borders up. Speaking of borders in a neighboring state where you can buy this damn stuff legally, how the hell is that possible? And I'm on it. I have no problem with the second amendment. You have a right to bear arms but not weapons of Goddamn mass destruction. Speaker 1: 00:43 The Gilroy shooting has also left California lawmakers wondering what more they can do to limit gun violence in the state. There are a handful of gun reforms under consideration in the legislature joining me by Skype as a reporter, Hannon Wiley of the Sacramento Bee who has reported on the gun laws being considered. And Hannah, welcome to the program. Speaker 3: 01:03 Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 01:04 So California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. How are lawmakers reacting to another instance of gun violence in the state? Speaker 3: 01:14 Like you said, the general ideas that California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, and the legislature even wants to do more to close some of the minor loopholes or details in legislation that leaves incidents like thousand oaks in San Bernardino capable of happening. But as governor Newsome and attorney general, Javier Bissera said, the laws in other states, California can't control those laws. So really they're looking at other states and they're looking at the White House and the Capitol in DC to pass some sweeping gun reform legislation that's on the federal level. Speaker 1: 01:53 Is there a sense among state legislators that the gun laws on the books are working despite these outbreaks of violence? Speaker 3: 02:02 There's more to be done, they said, but overall deaths have decreased. They say, and incidents like these are less common and guns are getting in the hands of people less often who aren't authorized to have them. So there, there are legislative efforts that have paid off, but it's just these minor loopholes that ended up turning into major ordeals. As we've seen this past weekend, Speaker 1: 02:28 one of the additional gun reforms being considered by state lawmakers is an effort to limit the number of guns that can be purchased at any one time. Tell us about that. Speaker 3: 02:38 Yes. So Senate bill 61 was written by Senator Anthony Portantino, who's written a handful of some of these gun control bills in California. And this legislative effort would specifically prohibit anyone from purchasing more than one fire arm, but specifically long guns per month. And the legislation also prohibits semiautomatic rifles to any person under 21. Speaker 1: 03:03 So supporters say the bill would stop people from walking into a gun store and coming out with an arsenal. But former governor Jerry Brown vetoed similar bills. So what's the argument against it? Speaker 3: 03:15 Right. So he vetoed basically the same bill last year, uh, also written by senator report and Tino. And really his argument was that, uh, there needs to be a fair and balanced approach to gun ownership and that you can't exclude people in legislation. That's intended to increase safety, but you can't exclude the people that use guns in a safe and fair way. Maybe they are hunting or protecting themselves, uh, and it creates this undue burden or limits their second amendment rights. And there's some legal questions surrounding second amendment violations potentially in some of these bills or proposals out of the capitol. Speaker 1: 03:55 Now there are also a couple of bills aimed at expanding gun violence restraining orders. How would they be expanded under these new proposals? Speaker 3: 04:04 So right now of close family members, so think spouse, domestic partner, a immediate family member, they can petition a court to temporarily take away guns from people who might, should not have them in a current mental state or a certain life event, et Cetera. But the argument under Assembly Bill 61 is that there are individuals may be in the work environment, school staff members, employees, employers, fellow employees and employers who are close to these individuals and who can see these exhibited warning signs early on and that they are in the capacity to pick up on this strange and concerning behavior and sometimes petition a court before in these mass shootings take place and, and get those restraining orders to take away those guns before tragic events like these can happen. Speaker 1: 04:56 And they're sort of a companion bill to this. And apparently some lawmakers think there's a lack of police training about when and how to file one of those gun restraining orders. Speaker 3: 05:06 Right? So the current basic training course for peace officers, according to the bill analysis, does not include training on gun violence restraining orders. So there's a commission that trains officers and there's about eight hours, they say that's dedicated to domestic violence restraining orders, but none of that is dedicated to gun violence restraining orders. So this legislation with specifically tasked to the commission to really ramp up police officer training on how to file and respond to gun violence restraining orders and increase their understanding of when it's appropriate to file one as well. Speaker 1: 05:44 Since recent laws allow law enforcement to remove guns from people who illegally possess them, that can be a dangerous thing for police agencies. Now a new bill would start a pilot program in several cities, including San Diego. Tell us about that. Speaker 3: 06:01 Right. So the California Department of Justice oversees this, this program called the arm's prohibited person systems and it is the statewide, uh, initiative to remove firearms from those who illegally possess them. Maybe they have a criminal record, maybe they have a domestic violence restraining order against them, but there is a growing backlog in the thousands that the department just can't keep up with. And they partner with local law enforcement agencies to remove the weapons. But this specific bill would implement this pilot program that gives a lot of power to some of these county law enforcement organizations and agencies and allows them to, to handle the reinforcement of the system. And the confiscation of these weapons in a more authoritative manner. Speaker 1: 06:52 When could law makers in Sacramento consider these new bills? Speaker 3: 06:56 So the legislature reconvenes on August 12th, and a lot of these bills are hanging in the appropriation suspense file, and they'll get the green or red light from lawmakers once the ledge reconvened in mid August. So we'll start to see some of these bills get extra attention, I'm sure, because of the Gillray shooting that happened on Sunday. Speaker 1: 07:18 I've been speaking with reporter Hannah Wiley of the Sacramento Bee and Hannah, thank you very much. Speaker 3: 07:23 Thank you. I appreciate it. Speaker 4: 07:31 [inaudible] Speaker 5: 07:34 uh.