Existing law requires the transfer of a firearm, including the loan of a firearm, to be conducted through a licensed dealer, except as exempted. Existing law requires a dealer processing the transfer of a firearm to, among other requirements and subject to certain exemptions, hold the firearm for a specified period of time before transfer, obtain a background check of the person receiving the firearm, and report the transfer to the Department of Justice. Existing law also requires a person purchasing or receiving a firearm to possess a firearm safety certificate or handgun safety certificate.

This bill would exempt from the above provisions those requirements the temporary transfer of a firearm that is voluntarily made for the purpose of preventing a suicide attempt using that firearm, as specified.

Existing law requires the transfer of a firearm, including the loan of a firearm, to be conducted through a licensed dealer, except as exempted. Existing law requires a dealer processing the transfer of a firearm to, among other requirements and subject to certain exemptions, hold the firearm for a specified period of time before transfer, obtain a background check of the person receiving the firearm, and report the transfer to the Department of Justice. Existing law also requires a person purchasing or receiving a firearm to possess a firearm safety certificate or handgun safety certificate.

This bill would exempt from the above provisions the temporary transfer of a firearm that is voluntarily made for the purpose of preventing a suicide attempt using that firearm, as specified.

Date of Hearing: May 9, 2018

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 2817

Author:(Santiago) – As Amended Ver:March 23, 2018

Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No

SUMMARY:

This bill allows a temporary transfer of a firearm without using a licensed dealer for the purpose of preventing a suicide attempt. This bill establishes certain requirements for the temporary transfer of a firearm to prevent a suicide, such as requiring the person receiving the firearm keep it unloaded and secured in a locked container and requiring the transfer be reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ) within 48 hours.

FISCAL EFFECT:

Costs (Dealers’ Record of Sale Fund) of $720,000 in 2018-19, $937,000 in 2019-20, and $543,000 in 2020-21 and ongoing for DOJ to procure an external consultant for onetime system development efforts and for three staff positions on an ongoing basis.

COMMENTS:

1. Background and purpose. Under current law, the transfer of a firearm from one person to another must be accomplished through a licensed firearms dealer. As part of the transaction the dealer is required to check with DOJ to ensure the person receiving the firearm is not prohibited from doing so. The purpose of this bill is to provide a streamlined process for allowing the temporary transfer of a firearm in order to prevent a suicide attempt. According to the author:

Suicide is the second-most common cause of death for Americans between the ages of 15 and 34 with gun suicides claiming 1,051 lives in California alone. Overall, there are twice as many suicides as homicides in California. At least 85% of suicide attempts with a firearm are fatal. Other methods are less likely to be lethal. Suicide attempts with a gun, once initiated, cannot be aborted or reversed.

1. Related legislation.

AB 1927 (Bonta), of the current legislative session, allows persons who believe they are at risk of committing suicide to voluntarily add themselves to a statewide Do Not Sell list to prevent them from obtaining a firearm. AB 1927 is on this committee’s suspense file.

AB 1968 (Low), of the current legislative session, requires a person who has been taken into custody, assessed, and admitted to a designated facility because they are a danger to themselves, or others, as a result of a mental health disorder more than once within a one-year period to be prohibited from owning a firearm for the remainder of the person’s life. AB 1968 is on this committee’s suspense file.

Analysis Prepared by: Jessica Peters / APPR. / (916) 319-2081

Date of Hearing:

Counsel: Matthew Fleming

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY

Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr., Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 2817

Author:(Santiago) – As Amended Ver:March 23, 2018

SUMMARY:

Allows a temporary transfer of a firearm without using a licensed dealer for the purpose of preventing a suicide attempt. Specifically, this bill:

1. Exempts a voluntary and temporary transfer of a firearm from the requirement that the firearm go through licensed firearm dealer if the transfer is being made in order to prevent a person from accessing the firearm to attempt suicide.
   
2. Limits the duration of the transfer to that time which is reasonably necessary to avoid the attempted suicide.
   
3. Requires that the person receiving the firearm not use it, and keep it unloaded and secured in a locked container, disabled by a safety device, secured in a locked gun safe, or secured with a locking device as defined by law.
   
4. Requires that the transfer be reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ) within 48 hours, along with the name of the person taking possession of the firearm, the name of the person transferring the firearm, the date of the transfer, and the make model, serial number, and other identifying characteristics of the firearm.
   
5. Requires that the return of the firearm be reported to the DOJ within 48 hours, along with the name of the person returning the firearm, the name of the person to whom the firearm is being returned, the date of the transfer, and the make model, serial number, and other identifying characteristics of the firearm.
   
6. Specifies that if a firearm cannot be returned to the owner because that person is prohibited from owning a firearm then the firearm must be delivered to a law enforcement agency without delay.
   
7. Specifies that a transfer to law enforcement agency under these provisions is exempt from using a licensed firearm dealer.
   
8. Specifies that such a transfer does not require a DOJ safety certificate.
   
9. Specifies that the transfer may not be to someone who is otherwise prohibited by law.
   

EXISTING LAW:

1. States that where neither party to a firearm transaction holds a dealer's license issued as specified, the parties to the transaction shall complete the sale, loan, or transfer of that firearm through a licensed firearms dealer, as specified. (Pen. Code, § 27545.)
   
2. Specifies that the requirement that a firearm transaction go through are licensed firearms dealer, does not apply to the loan of a firearm between persons who family members, if all of the following requirements are satisfied:
   
   1. The loan is infrequent, as specified; (Pen. Code, § 27880, subd. (b).)
      
   2. The loan is for any lawful purpose; (Pen. Code, § 27880, subd. (c).)
      
   3. The loan does not exceed 30 days in duration; and, (Pen. Code, § 27880, subd. (d).)
      
   4. For any firearm, the individual being loaned the firearm shall have a valid firearm safety certificate, except that in the case of a handgun, an unexpired handgun safety certificate may be used. (Pen. Code, § 27880, subd. (e).)
      
3. Defines an "infrequent loan'' for purposes of as ''less than six transactions per calendar year.'' (Pen. Code, § 16730, subd. (a)(1).)
   
4. Defines an "infrequent'' loan for purposes of firearms other than handguns as “occasional and without regularity.” (Pen. Code, § 16730, subd. (a)(2).)
   
5. Makes it a misdemeanor to transfer a long gun without using a licensed dealer, and an alternate felony/misdemeanor to transfer a handgun without using licensed dealer. (Pen. Code, § 27590.)
   

FISCAL EFFECT:

Unknown

COMMENTS:

1. Author's Statement: According to the author, “Suicide is the second-most common cause of death for Americans between the ages of 15 and 34 with gun suicides claiming 1,051 lives in California alone. Overall, there are twice as many suicides as homicides in California. At least 85% of suicide attempts with a firearm are fatal. Other methods are less likely to be lethal. Suicide attempts with a gun, once initiated, cannot be aborted or reversed. Most other methods allow a window of opportunity for the attempter to change his/her mind or be rescued.

“Suicide by gun is a uniquely important problem amongst our veteran populations. In 2014, an average of 20 U.S. Veterans died from suicide each day. Veterans are more likely than non-veterans to own firearms, and 70% of veteran suicides are by firearm. When the Israeli Defense Force observed that many of their suicides occurred on weekends while soldiers were on leave, they began requiring soldiers to leave their guns on base during leave periods. Amazingly, suicide deaths dropped an astonishing 40%.

“Related to this epidemic is data showing that people with guns at home are more than twice as likely to die by suicide as people who don’t have guns at home. The risk is even higher if the guns are stored loaded and unlocked.

“A widening coalition of suicide prevention experts, gun rights, and gun control proponents agree that when a gun owner is at risk for suicide, friends and family can help by urging him or her to store their firearm away from home until mental and emotional stability has been regained. 93% of veterans responding to a membership survey of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America indicated that if a friend were in crisis, they would support a peer speaking to them about firearm storage options.

“I have been proud to author and co-author numerous gun control measures in my relatively short tenure in the State Assembly, thus far. Like many, I am horrified at nearly every gun-related incident I hear about in the news. If we are truly serious about reducing gun violence in California (and the nation) we must begin a national dialogue about mental health and across-the-board gun safety. I believe that AB 2817 is an important piece of that puzzle.”

1. Firearm Suicides: According to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, there were 1,559 firearm suicide deaths in California in 2015. (http://efsgv.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Firearm-Suicide-in-California-November-2017-updated-1.pdf.) According to statistics compiled by gunpolicy.org, suicides by firearm are generally more prevalent than homicide by firearm.
   

In 2010, 50.5 percent of suicides were committed using a firearm. Suicide attempts with guns are likelier to result in death. The Center for Disease Control found that in 2001, 85 percent of suicide attempts involving guns resulted in death, significantly above other methods. A study looking at hospital admissions for suicides and suicide attempts in Illinois found that 96 percent of firearm cases resulted in death, while only 6.7 percent of cases involving cuts and 6.5 percent of cases involving poisoning did. (https://www.vox.com/2014/8/12/5993075/depression-suicide-13-facts)

The mere fact that a person possesses a firearm increases their risk of suicide. Suicide attempts that involve the use of a gun are more likely to be successful. In a survey of 36 wealthy nations, the United States was unique in having the highest overall firearm mortality rate and the highest proportion of suicides by firearms. There is strong evidence that access to firearms, whether from household availability or a new purchase, is associated with increased risk of suicide. The risk of suicide by guns is far higher in states with high rates of gun ownership than in those with low ownership rates. The increased risk of suicide applies not only to the gun owner but to others living in a household with guns. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518361)

This bill would allow someone who believes that another person may use a firearm to attempt suicide to avoid the somewhat cumbersome process of using a licensed dealer in order to effectuate the transfer. This bill would impose temporal requirements as well as reporting requirements and would prohibit use of the firearm during the transfer period. Given the prevalence of firearm suicide, it appears that this bill would promote public safety by providing Californians with a tool to avoid the most deadly form of suicide attempt.

1. Argument in Support: According to the Gifford’s Law Center, “AB 2817 would authorize people to temporarily transfer firearms to another responsible adult to prevent the firearm from being used to attempt suicide by the transferor or another person that may gain access to it in the transferor’s household. In these emergency cases, this legislation would authorize the person to immediately transfer possession of the firearm for a temporary period without conducting the transfer through a licensed dealer, provided that the transferee does not use the firearm in any manner and keeps the firearm unloaded and secured in his or her residence at all times.

“Our organization has long advocated for sensible, life-saving regulation of firearm sales and transfers to help prevent people at greatest risk of violence from obtaining deadly weapons. As a result, we have strongly supported California’s effective universal background check law, which generally requires gun sales and transfers to be processed by a licensed firearms dealer pursuant to background check, sale record, and waiting period requirements. We have also supported recent legislation that was enacted in 2016 to strengthen this law by limiting the scope of exemptions under which Californians could loan firearms for unlimited periods of time to other acquaintances without processing the loan through a dealer.

“We believe, however, that existing law is now counterproductively restrictive in the narrow context of suicide prevention. It is considered a best practice to encourage people in suicidal crisis to remove all firearms from the home as soon as possible. This legislation will help facilitate and encourage such temporary transfers to help prevent people at highest risk of suicide from having immediate access to the most lethal means of suicide.”

1. Related Legislation:
   
   1. AB 1927 (Bonta), of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session, would allow persons who believe they are at risk of committing suicide to voluntarily add themselves to a statewide Do Not Sell list to prevent them from obtaining a firearm. AB 1927 has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee where it was placed in the suspense file.
      
   2. AB 1968 (Low), would require that a person who has been taken into custody, assessed, and admitted to a designated facility because he or she is a danger to himself, herself, or others, as a result of a mental health disorder more than once within a 5-year period to be prohibited from owning a firearm for the remainder of his or her life. AB 1968 is pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
      
2. Prior Legislation: AB 1511 (Santiago) Chapter 41, Statutes of 2016, specified that the infrequent loan of a firearm may only be made to family members.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Gifford’s Law Center

Opposition

None

Analysis Prepared by:

Matthew Fleming / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744