Politics & Government
Pleasanton Gun Owners Could Be Required To Lock Up Firearms
Accidental shootings by children killed 142 people last year and resulted in 242 injuries, according to the city.
PLEASANTON, CA — The Pleasanton City Council on Tuesday will consider creating an ordinance requiring gun owners to ether store them in a locked container or keep the firearm's trigger lock engaged.
A staff report for Tuesday's meeting says a safe firearms storage ordnance is one of the council's priorities. The law seeks to curb access to firearms by children and other persons who may be at risk of harming themselves or others."
The report cites a 2016 study published in the American Journal of Public Health saying an estimated 54 percent of gun owners do not lock up all their guns or store them trigger-locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition.
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It also says in 2020 across the U.S., there were 369 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 142 deaths and 242 injures. It also cited a 2018 study, published in the Journal of Urban Health, finding roughly 4.6 million children under 18 lived in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms.
California law saws someone can be held liable if they possess a firearm within any premises where they reasonably know a child can access the firearm without permission of the child's guardian. That also goes for a person prohibited from access to firearms.
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The Pleasanton ordinance would fill "a gap in state law by specifying what are acceptable safe storage practices for firearms within residences, thus rendering moot the question of whether a gun owner should have reasonably known that a child or prohibited person was likely to access the firearm."
Other Bay Area cites have enacted similar ordinances, including Dublin, Palo Alto, San Jose, and Redwood City.
If approved, the ordinance would take effect and be enforced 30 days following a second reading at a future council meeting. The Pleasanton City Council meets virtually at 7 p.m. Tuesday, on Zoom or YouTube.
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