California's Gun Laws, While Effective, Pose Enforcement Challenges

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation: it bans assault-type weapons and high-capacity magazines, mandates background checks and waiting periods for firearm purchases and empowers citizens to ask a court to temporarily remove a gun from someone likely to harm themselves or others. Its firearm violence death rate is also significantly lower than the rest of the country's. Still, laws alone were not enough to prevent the deadly mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. We'll learn why and hear about the obstacles California agencies face as they try to enforce the state's gun laws and contend with lax rules in neighboring states. Guests: Garen Wintemute , director, violence prevention research program at UC Davis - He also practices and teaches emergency medicine at the UC-Davis School of Medicine. Steve Lindley, program manager, Brady Campaign - former chief of the Bureau of Firearms, California Department of Justice Alana Mathews, assistant district attorney, Contra Costa County Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport. At SFO, you can shop,
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0:56.6	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on forum, California has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, but are they working? As we anguish over the toll of recent mass shootings, including in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay that killed 19 people, many have been left wondering, how does this keep happening here?
1:34.0	Are California's gun laws ineffective or just too hard to enforce?
1:38.5	Have we reached the limits of what one state can do?
1:42.1	We tackle those questions with experts and prosecutors and hear yours
1:46.4	right after this news.
1:58.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. California has more than 100 gun control laws on the books,
2:05.7	and we're one of only two states to earn an A from the Gifford's Law Center, based on the strength of our regulations,
2:12.7	and our relatively low number of gun deaths compared to other states when you factor in the size of our
2:18.6	population. But in the aftermath of recent gun massacres in Monterey Park, Goshen, and Half Moon
2:25.6	Bay, many are asking, are California's laws effective? Garron Wintmute directs the Violence Prevention
2:33.3	Research Program at UC Davis Medical Center and joins me now. Welcome, Dr. Wintamute.
2:39.1	Thanks for having me, Mina. So you say California's gun laws are effective, even in the wake of these terrible killings. Why?
2:47.6	I do say that, even this week. We need not to consider the laws of failure because they don't prevent all gun violence,
2:58.7	but understand that they are a success to the extent that they do prevent gun violence.
	...

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