Federal, state and county officials convened in San Mateo County to identify ideas for reducing gun violence and keeping weapons away from prohibited people around topics of technology, coordination and funding.
“We must continue to empathize with those affected by gun violence and dedicate our time and energy to utilizing the tools at hand to end it,” Don Horsley, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said.
Horsley, Supervisor Dave Pine, and the Giffords Law Center hosted the March 11 event at the San Mateo County Regional Operations Center in Redwood City. Attendees included judges, court representatives, politicians, law enforcement officers, school leaders and nonprofits. California Attorney General Rob Bonta provided the keynote address, with U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and Assemblymember Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, also speaking.
Several speakers highlighted the success of the Armed Prohibited Persons System, or APPS, in reducing gun violence. The state database allows agencies to identify and provide information about gun owners prohibited from possessing firearms. As of 2020, there are over 20,000 armed and prohibited people in the database. Since the state established APPS in 2006, it has seized more than 20,000 illegally held firearms from people. State agencies use the database to find and disarm people who can no longer legally have guns. Other discussions centered around the rise of ghost guns being used in crimes, untraceable firearms being made illegally, and maximizing gun restraining orders to reduce illegal gun ownership.
Pine said the county is working to do its part to stop gun violence. It filled a loophole in a state firearm storage law with a local ordinance and worked with cities to pass similar legislation. The county has also updated a firearm dealer ordinance to incorporate new practices and has put financial resources into the county’s gun buyback program.
“We hope to explore ways to utilize the tools at our disposal to prevent gun violence, such as restraining orders and APPS, the Armed Prohibited Persons System,” Pine said.
According to The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, nearly 3,000 California’s died from gun violence in 2019. Suicides were 54% of the gun deaths, and homicides were 42%. Almost 70% of homicides in California are committed with firearms.
During a conference question-and-answer session, Bonta mentioned that he believes technology and artificial intelligence can be useful tools to track information and prevent shootings. He noted the state does not track ghost guns in the APPS system. Bonta stressed that putting owners and guns in the system will help determine if they should have them. He said new artificial intelligence is available to scan and review public information for red flag triggers to prevent shootings. However, he stressed the importance of balancing technology with people’s right to privacy.
“There is some really powerful technology that is being created that can look through massive volumes of data and pull out and identify the very small universe of potential threat to be evaluated and reviewed and could be the subject basis of a restraining order to legally remove guns from someone’s hands who could be harming themselves or others,” Bonta said.
Bonta is working on sweeps conducted with data from the APPS system, getting funding for counties from the state and stricter regulations around ghost gun manufacturers.
“We all know what’s happening in our nation now is unacceptable, and none of us, appropriately, are remaining complacent,” Bonta said.
Speier said California has some of the strongest laws in the nation, but gaps around enforcement, restraining orders and funding remain.
“Our obligation is to enforce the law and fund the law, and that’s where every one of us comes in,” Speier said to conference attendees.
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(2) comments
Here’s a thought – stop letting convicted criminals back out in the Bay Area wild. The more you keep talking about it, the more people continue to be injured or killed. The more people continue to die, the more guns people will buy since their government won’t do the job of protecting them. The more guns in the environment, the more guns are available for criminals to obtain, by hook or by crook. The more guns criminals have, the more gun violence there is. The more gun violence there is, the more people continue to die while you talk about it. Lather, rinse, repeat. If Speier thinks we have the strongest laws in the nation, then the laws that put criminals in prison should be enforced. Lip service is worthless - especially to those injured or killed by released convicts.
Punishing law abiding citizens for illegal things criminals do. The fact these politicians want to restrict our access to Constitutional rights while not actually doing anything to make us safer from criminals - shows everything we need to know about them. They are all about control - not substance.
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