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The shooting death of Pleasanton native Kate Steinle in San Francisco last year by a gun stolen from a federal ranger’s car has given rise to new state legislation and a recently introduced federal bill each aimed at stopping law enforcement firearms from getting into the wrong hands.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last Monday legislation from a Bay Area state senator that requires new standards for peace officers when storing their guns in their cars.
Approval of the new California law comes less than two weeks after Danville’s congressman, Mark DeSaulnier, introduced a bill that would mandate all federal agencies to implement rules to help prevent law enforcement officers’ service weapons from being lost or stolen.
“Locking a firearm when it is not in use should be standard practice,” DeSaulnier, D-Concord, said in a statement earlier this month. “Yet, the glaring gap in current policies regarding gun safety has led to federal law enforcement weapons being stolen and subsequently used in crimes.”
DeSaulnier, who said his proposal would help close that gap, and State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, whose legislation was signed by the governor Monday, each pointed to the Steinle case and the shooting death of a muralist in Oakland last year among the stolen-gun incidents that motivated their respective bills.
Steinle, 32, was killed on San Francisco’s Pier 14 the afternoon of July 1, 2015, by a bullet — that ricocheted off the ground — fired from a gun that had been stolen from the car of a U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger, according to investigators.
A little more than two months later, 27-year-old Antonio Ramos was shot dead as he worked on a mural in Oakland, with the gun stolen from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s car, according to investigators in that case.
Hill’s Senate Bill 869 — known as “Firearms: securing handguns in vehicles” — requires all peace officers, as well as any other person, when leaving a handgun in an unattended car to lock the firearm in the trunk or place the gun in a locked container that is not in plain view.
As Hill said when he introduced the legislation, it aims to close a loophole that makes officers “exempt from the safety requirements for guns left in a car that apply to everyone else.”
A violation would be punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. The regulation does not apply to a peace officer “during circumstances requiring immediate aid or action that are within the course of his or her official duties.”
Meanwhile in Congress, DeSaulnier on Sept. 14 introduced his “Federal Law Enforcement and Public Protection Act,” House Resolution 6024.
The freshman congressman’s bill would force the leaders of all civilian and military federal law enforcement agencies to create rules requiring their officers to store and safely lock their firearms when not kept in their personal possession.
“My bill would ensure that federal law enforcement officers are properly storing their guns to protect the public and themselves,” DeSaulnier said. “This bill would put into place simple reforms to make certain our law enforcement uses best practices that can save lives.”
The legislation would put the onus on the officer to store their service weapon by using smart guns and smart locks, trigger locks, safes, gunlock boxes or other means approved by the agency, which would decide the discipline for violations.
The guns could not be kept in personal or patrol vehicles except for temporary storage when in court, when other options aren’t available, or if authorized by the agency. If an officer’s gun is stolen or lost, the incident would need to be reported to the FBI, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and relevant state and local agencies.
HR 6024 was referred to the House Armed Services Committee.
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The League of Women Voters will be hosting a candidate forum Monday, Oct. 3, for the four candidates seeking a spot on the Mountain View Whisman School District Board of Trustees this November. -
Students and visitors to Stanford University walk along colonnades that line the main quad on March 13, 2015. Photo by Veronica Weber.
This is one of the reasons that people dislike politics so much. This story focuses only on one aspect of the problem, gun storage. However, there is no mention of the fact that the man who killed Kate was in the country illegally and had been deported 5 times ( http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/kate-steinle-lawsuit-political-reverberations-washington-illegal-immigration/story?id=33461835 ).
Democrats and Republicans have chosen to turn a blind eye to the immigration issue because as long as the system’s broken, both parties can count on exploiting those who come illegally as cheap labor and new voters.
It is not believable that in this day and age, a system cannot be designed that processes people who want to live and/or work in the US within 2-4 weeks, and that we can’t have a secure border. When I went to Universal Studios in Hollywood 3 years ago, I had to give a fingerprint id to get into the park! Some City Councils are considering the use of license plate trackers to monitor everyone going into and out of their cities.
Instead of people arguing about how many people are coming into the country, the real argument should be “Why aren’t our leaders fixing the system so that people don’t feel that they can’t come here legally, and so we know who is coming in?”
Fixing the problem would mean an end to the massive exploitation of people from the south and the east and how many people truly want that? Many people I talk to seem to think they are only good for washing dishes or working in restaurants. I happen to think they can do anything, once the system is fixed.
Jim Neal
Old Mountain View
Once again, Jim, you try and deflect, deflect, deflect.
You obviously do NOT want people to know that losses of firearms by law enforcement agencies is a serious issue.
extras.mercurynews.com/policeguns/
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/police-730005-weapons-guns.html
Jim isn’t deflecting anything, he legitimizes that firearms are ONE aspect but he’s brought up additional extremely relevant issues. It seems to me that YOU’RE the one who is deflecting.
“Jim isn’t deflecting anything, he legitimizes that firearms are ONE aspect but he’s brought up additional extremely relevant issues.”
Uhhhhhhhh…no.
“It seems to me that YOU’RE the one who is deflecting.”
Uhhhhh…no.
But thanks for playing.
Wow.. can’t stay on target for a second anymore.
The article is about safely storing a gun when you’re not carrying or using it.
Sadly I doubt this will change anything. One thing cops are terrible at is holding each other accountable.
Just to be crystal clear on this point, I myself have frequently spoken out about the fact that many gun laws are useless because criminals by definition do not obey the law. They steal guns from people who do obey the law, steal them from police officers and gun stores, and also bring them illegally across the border. I have also stated publicly that law enforcement personnel should be just as responsible for securing and accounting for their weapons as anyone else.
That being said, it still does not change the fact that this story blatantly ignores one of the biggest factual elements; that Kate was killed by someone who was here illegally and who, despite having a criminal record, was able to cross the border at will. Had that not been the case, he would not have had the opportunity to steal the gun and would not have been in San Francisco to kill Kate.
Having weak enforcement for the purpose of exploiting people of color, simultaneously endangers everyone regardless of immigration status, and is not acceptable!
Jim Neal
Old Mountain View