CA has always had issues with fire arms coming into the state from other states, particularly Nevada and Arizona. The mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in July prompted CA lawmakers to reach across the state line and ask its neighbors to help create some type of a ‘buffer zone.’
The shooter purchased the gun he used to kill three people and injure 12 others legally in Nevada where it’s much easier to buy a weapon than in CA.
On Wednesday, 27 lawmakers sent a letter to Nevada State Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson (D) and his colleagues asking them “to help close loopholes and advance common sense gun safety measures.”
CA lawmakers would like “the two states to hold a legislative summit where leaders from both states could discuss avenues for interstate cooperation on gun safety reform and serve as a model of collaboration for other states.“
The Gilroy shooter’s method of getting a gun wasn’t unusual. In 2017, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced more than 41,000 firearms recovered in California. More than 1,500 guns came from Nevada, making the state the third-most-common point of origin, following Arizona (with 2,185) and California itself (with nearly 17,400). The flow of guns from states with loose laws to states with strict ones is a nationwide trend.
Although a specific agenda has yet to be determined, Red Flag laws and measures to limit assault weapons could be the focus of attention for CA leaders. Nevada does not have either on their legislative books.
A recent study from University of California, Davis, School of Medicine’s Violence Prevention Research Program suggests that Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO), commonly referred to as Red Flag laws, “are most commonly used to prevent suicide and are effective.”
The study shows that CA’s Red Flag law may have prevented two mass shootings but the authors of the study are ‘seeking to obtain court records’ to evaluate if the law prevented more.
