13 - Laserfiche WebLink

BACKGROUND In May of 2021, the City Council adopted the FY2021/22 — FY2022/23 Work Plan Priorities. One of the priorities was to evaluate state laws and other cities' ordinances related to safe gun storage and to develop an ordinance for Pleasanton. This report and the attached proposed ordinance are the result of that effort. DISCUSSION The unsafe storage of firearms threatens public health and safety. A 2016 study of gun owners published in the American Journal of Public Health found that while millions of responsible gun owners follow recommended storage practices, an estimated 54% do not lock up all of their guns or store them trigger -locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Nationally, in 2020, there were 369 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 142 deaths and 242 injuries. In California, there were ten unintentional shootings by children resulting in three deaths and seven injuries. As of September 14, 2021, there have been 266 unintentional shootings by children resulting in 107 deaths and 173 injuries across the nation while there have been at least 11 unintentional shootings by children, 3 deaths, and 8 injuries in California. (Data was provided by Everytown Research and Policy.) A 2010 study in the journal Suicide and Life -Threatening Behavior found that over 80% of children (18 years or younger) who died by gun suicide used a gun belonging to a family member. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 637 children die by gun suicide each year on average. Research from JAMA Pediatrics found that the safe storage of firearms can reduce firearm suicide and unintentional firearm fatalities among youth. Furthermore, unsecured guns are susceptible to theft and pose a significant public health and safety hazard. A 2017 study in the journal Injury Epidemiology found that national survey data suggests that approximately 380,000 firearms are stolen from individual gun owners each year and that gun owners who do not safely store their firearms are significantly more likely to have them stolen. In 2018, a study published in the Journal of Urban Health found that roughly 4.6 million children and youth under age 18 were living in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms. In addition, a study published in 2006 in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that 73% of children under age 10 living in homes with guns reported knowing the location of their parents' firearms. The same study demonstrated that parents often believe, incorrectly, that their children do not know the location of guns stored in the home or that their children have not handled their parents' firearms Page 2 of 4