Portantino’s Comprehensive Gun Safety Bill Heads to Governor

For Immediate Release: September 13, 2023

Contact: Lerna Shirinian, (818) 409-0400

Portantino’s Comprehensive Gun Safety Bill Heads to Governor

Sacramento, CA – Senate Bill 368, authored by State Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank), passed the Senate and is headed to the Governor’s desk. The bill is a commonsense gun safety effort that would expand and strengthen firearm ownership prohibition laws and create additional responsibilities for commercial gun stores. 

“Data tells us that households with firearms have a higher risk of suicide and accidental firearm injuries,” stated Senator Portantino. “Additionally, violating the 10-year prohibition makes a person incapable of safely owning a gun. An easier path to gun storage and thorough risk assessment will make California safer. I am also very grateful to gun safety activists from Burbank who highlighted raffle giveaways at gun stores and I am pleased to prohibit them in the future.”

When compared to households without firearms, households that have guns face a higher risk of homicide, suicide, and accidental firearm injury. Voluntary, temporary transfer of firearms for the duration of a crisis can save lives. Currently, however, licensed retailers and law enforcement agencies are not required to accept and store firearms during a mental health crisis.

SB 368 would:

• would require a licensed firearms dealer to accept for storage a firearm transferred by an individual to prevent it from being used during periods of crisis or heightened risk to the owner of the firearm or members of their household.
• prohibit a firearms store from offering an opportunity to win an item of inventory in a game dominated by chance and would exempt from this prohibition nonprofit organizations under certain circumstances.
• extend the 10-year prohibition on owning a firearm by an additional 10 years if an individual is found to be in violation within the initial 10 years.

“With the firearm suicide rate increasing among young people and now at a 10-year high, the unprecedented surge in gun sales in the U.S., and the already growing rates of firearm suicide across all age groups, SB 368 is a much-needed common sense strategy to help save lives,” stated Margot Bennett, Executive Director of Women Against Gun Violence. “We look are grateful to the Legislature for passing this critical bill and look forward to SB 368 being signed into California law by our Governor.”

Senator Portantino has long been a champion of common sense gun reform policies. During his time in the Assembly, he successfully banned the open carry of handguns and rifles in California and as Senator, he raised the firearm purchase age in California to twenty-one. The Senator has authored legislation related to firearms storage and gun purchase safeguards, as well as a legislation that reduces the number of firearms an unlicensed individual is annually able to sell and the frequency with which they are able to sell. Most recently, he authored legislation aimed at preventing tragic schools shootings and a major gun reform measure that offers a new tool to combat the rise in gun violence and save lives – a private right of action.

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