On December 15th, the City Council's Public Safety Committee passed a motion recommending that the Council adopt four new gun safety measures.
The goal of the proposed ordinances (see links on the left) is to reduce the number of injuries and lives lost in Oakland due to stolen firearms and large capacity magazines
Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and I sponsored two ordinances that address firearms that are stolen from vehicles. One tragic example is the stolen firearm that was used in the murder an Oakland artist who was working on an antiviolence mural on West Street when he was killed in September.
Two additional ordinances sponsored by Councilmembers Dan Kalb and Annie Campbell Washington would require safe storage of guns in homes and prohibit possession of large capacity magazines in Oakland.
Scores of Americans are killed by guns every day in our country, including dozens every year in Oakland; almost all of the victims are young Black and Brown men. Unfortunately the U.S. Congress is suffering from some kind of political psychosis when it comes to guns, refusing to pass common sense reforms such as universal background checks and licensing for all gun purchases. In this legal context, we in Oakland have a moral imperative to do everything humanly possible to address this crisis with our own legislation.
The first ordinance sponsored by me and Councilmember Kaplan will make it a crime to leave firearms, magazines or ammunition unsecured in unattended vehicles on city streets and in other public places. The law will require the weapons to be stored in locked boxes or a locked glove compartment. The second ordinance would require that law enforcement officers secure City-issued firearms in unattended personal vehicles inside Oakland and elsewhere.
Guns stolen from parked cars have been linked to a number of high profile murders in the Bay Area this year, including the tragic death of Oakland artist Antonio Ramos, who was shot and killed in September while working on an antiviolence mural on West Street. Ramos apparently was killed with a gun that was stolen from the rental car of a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer in San Francisco two weeks before Ramos' murder.
According to the Oakland Police Department, approximately 300 firearms were stolen during auto burglaries in Oakland between August 2004 and November 2015. About 91% of those were handguns, and about 9% were "long guns" or rifles.
Additionally, the number of reported auto burglaries has increased dramatically in recent years, according to the police department.
The National Rifle Association has been organizing its minions to block the measures. We urge you to attend the Council's January 5th meeting to support common sense gun regulations that will (1) reduce the number of stolen guns that fall into the hands of criminals and (2) ban the possession of large capacity magazines that often have been used in mass shootings, including Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado.
