WALNUT CREEK — In an effort to maintain weapons out of the incorrect arms, the town will start fining residents who're discovered to not be storing their firearms safely.
Beneath an ordinance unanimously permitted Tuesday by the Metropolis Council, firearm homeowners who hold their weapons at dwelling should stow them in a locked container or disable them with a security gadget.
California already requires gun producers to promote firearms with security units, however the state’s legal guidelines don’t specify how precisely these weapons ought to be saved at residences as soon as they’re purchased.
A number of different Bay Space cities have established comparable legal guidelines, together with San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Antioch, Dublin and Pleasanton. With the brand new ordinance, Walnut Creek officers hope to pre-empt a scenario the place a licensed gun proprietor’s weapons are stolen by somebody who intends to commit violence with them.
The brand new restrictions comply with one other sequence of high-profilemass shootings throughout the nation, together with grisly massacres at a Buffalo grocery store and a Texas elementary college.
“There’s a carelessness and cavalier-ness about weapons in some individuals that basically scares me and makes me uncomfortable,” Councilwoman Cindy Darling mentioned on the assembly. She recounted rising up in a gun-friendly household however extra lately chatting with her mom about taking away her father’s weapons as his dementia worsens.
These discovered breaking the town’s new regulation shall be fined a civil penalty of $100 for the primary violation, $200 after a second and $500 for every further penalty.
Sturdy advocates for the ordinance made clear on the council’s public remark session they didn’t need the regulation to supply felony expenses, worrying that may result in disproportionately extra enforcement towards residents of coloration.
“The aim of the ordinance shouldn't be to punish individuals with felony penalties, however to alter the tradition of gun security,” Rachel Shapiro advised the council.
Police Chief Jamie Knox mentioned officers will principally implement the regulation when violations have already been reported or grow to be obvious throughout investigations — one occasion being if a scholar have been to indicate as much as college with a gun the proprietor hadn’t saved safely locked at dwelling.
“Let’s change the dialog about gun possession and make secure storage of firearms as widespread as carrying a seatbelt, or not smoking in public,” mentioned Laurel Dobbin, a Walnut Creek resident and volunteer with gun security group Mothers Demand Motion. At conferences earlier this 12 months, members of the group’s native chapter had advocated for a gun-safety regulation just like the ordinance permitted Tuesday.
A few opponents mentioned the regulation as written could also be arduous to implement. Scott Hewitt, a Walnut Creek resident, advised the council as an alternative invite Nationwide Rifle Affiliation members to coach the general public about gun security.
However Knox mentioned the spirit of the ordinance can be to encourage “individuals to guard their firearms in a approach that unauthorized individuals wouldn't have entry to (them).”
“What we’re seeing is loads of weapons on the road,” Knox mentioned. “Virtually half of them now appear to be illegally manufactured weapons, however nonetheless loads of weapons on the road illegally are the results of ill-gotten beneficial properties from residential burglaries or automotive burglaries, as a result of individuals are not storing their firearms correctly.”