§ 9.36.060. Findings.

The City Council of the city finds that:

A.

Firearms are used in nearly eighty (80) percent of the homicides committed in the city; and

B.

Since June of 1990, Highland Hospital in Oakland has treated an average of thirty-two (32) Oakland residents a month for gunshot wounds, an average of one a day; and

C.

The average cost for treatment of a gunshot wound in the United States is thirty-three thousand dollars ($33,000.00), most of the cost borne by taxpayers. Nearly four hundred (400) gunshot wounds were treated at Highland Hospital in 1991; and

D.

Because of the range and effectiveness of firearms, the use of firearms in violent crimes is more likely to lead to the death or injury of bystanders; and

E.

Serious injury has resulted from the use of devices and projectiles other than firearms within the city; and

F.

Certain varieties of air guns which fire BBs or pellets can fire projectiles at a velocity of over seven hundred (700) feet per second, well above the velocity required to cause injury to persons or property; and

G.

Airguns alone account for an estimated fifteen thousand (15,000) childhood injuries nationally per year.

H.

One recent national study of injuries resulting from the use of nonpowder guns (air rifles, BB guns, etc.) found that two-thirds of the victims were less than sixteen (16) years old.

I.

Close to half of the firearms used in unintentional ("accidental") shootings of children nationally were acquired by children from their parents, who left the firearms loaded and unsecured in a place accessible to children.

J.

The state of California has not sufficiently addressed the problems resulting from the increased availability and use of firearms in urban areas of the state, forcing cities to enact, within the limits of state law, local measures.

(Prior code § 2 11.02)