Senator Portantino’s Poway Gun License & DOJ Investigations Bill Clears Assembly Public Safety Committee
For Immediate Release: July 13, 2021
Contact: Lerna Shirinian, (818) 409-0400
Senator Portantino’s Poway Gun License & DOJ Investigations Bill Clears Assembly Public Safety Committee
Sacramento, California – Senate Bill 715, a measure authored by Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge) which creates gun purchase safeguards and expands independent review of tragic police shootings, cleared the Assembly Public Safety Committee today.
“SB 715 is an important step toward combatting the gun violence epidemic in our country and improving public safety for all Californians,” stated Senator Portantino. “I am hopeful that with sensible measures, we can prevent tragic incidents of violence and conduct independent investigations when warranted. I believe that if the provisions in SB 715 had been in place in 2019, the tragedy that took place in Poway could have been prevented,” he added.
SB 715 addresses concerns related to the tragic synagogue shooting in Poway. The perpetrator of the Poway shooting was able to purchase a rifle, despite being under 21 and not having a valid hunting license. The validity of the license at the time of purchase was not verified.
Under current law, when transferring or purchasing a firearm with a hunting license there is no verification process during the 10-day background check process to ensure the validity of the license. This measure would require the Department of Justice, for sales of firearms to persons under 21 years of age who are eligible to purchase a firearm based upon their possession of a hunting license, to confirm the validity of the hunting license as part of the background check. This bill additionally defines what constitutes a valid and unexpired hunting license and would no longer allow a hunting license from the immediately preceding year to be used for this purpose. The bill would require a dealer to refuse delivery of a firearm if the validity of a hunting license cannot be determined upon visual inspection.
SB 715 also clarifies what qualifies as an unarmed civilian to prompt investigations of officer involved shootings by the Attorney General’s Office. It would authorize the state prosecutor to investigate and gather facts in an incident involving a shooting by a peace officer that results in the death of a civilian if there is a reasonable dispute as to whether that civilian was armed. Existing law, AB 1506, authorizes the state prosecutor to investigate only an officer involved shooting of an unarmed civilian.
In a recent incident, a Pasadena Police Department officer fatally and tragically shot civilian Anthony McClain. It is being disputed whether Mr. McClain was armed and therefore the incident was not eligible for DOJ investigation. Under SB 715, incidents such as this tragic shooting would be eligible for the same review included in AB 1506. Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D –Sacramento) authored AB 1506 and is a co-author of SB 715.
Senator Portantino has a long history of advocating for smart and sensible solutions to our nation’s tragic history of gun violence. During his time in the Assembly, the Senator successfully banned the open carry of handguns and rifles in California and as Senator, he raised the general gun purchase age in California to 21.
In 2019, Governor Newsom also signed Senator Portantino’s SB 172. The bill enacted a slate of significant provisions related to firearms storage by broadening criminal storage crimes, adding criminal storage offenses to those offenses that can trigger a 10-year firearm ban, and creating an exemption to firearm loan requirements for the purposes of preventing suicide. The same year, SB 376 was signed into law, which reduces the number of firearms an unlicensed individual is annually able to sell and the frequency with which they are able to sell.
These bills continue the trend of the Senator’s leadership on common sense gun control reforms.
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