§ 9.39.020. Findings and purpose.

The City Council finds as follows:

1.

This law is intended to reduce gun violence and gun injuries and make the City safer.

2.

Having a loaded or unlocked gun in the home is associated with an increased risk of gun-related injury and death.

3.

In 2013, more than five children under the age of twelve (12) were killed each month by guns that were improperly stored and secured at the home of a family member or friend.

4.

Children are particularly at risk of injury and death, or causing injury and death, when they can access guns in their own homes or homes that they visit.

5.

A 2005 study found that an estimated 1.69 million children under age eighteen (18), including children as young as three years old, are strong enough to fire handguns.

6.

More than two-thirds of school shooters obtained their guns from their own home or that of a relative.

7.

Quick access to loaded firearms heightens the risk that a young person's impulsive decision to commit suicide will be carried out without reflection or seeking help, and that the attempt will be fatal. One-third of youths who died by suicide had faced a crisis within the previous twenty-four (24) hours. Among people who nearly died in a suicide attempt, almost a quarter indicated that fewer than five minutes had passed between deciding on suicide and making the attempt. While less than ten percent of suicide attempts by other means are fatal, at least eighty-five (85) percent of firearm suicide attempts end in death.

8.

Guns kept in the home are more likely to be involved in an unintentional shooting, criminal assault, or used in suicides and against family and friends rather than in self-defense.

9.

According to information from the Oakland Police Department, from 2005 through 2015, there were approximately seven hundred seven (707) residential burglaries reported where a firearm was stolen.

10.

Applying trigger locks or using lockboxes when storing firearms in the home reduces the risk of firearm injury and death.

11.

Keeping a firearm locked when it is not being carried ensures that it cannot be accessed and used by others without the owners' knowledge or permission. This simple measure significantly decreases the risk that the gun will be used to commit suicide, homicide or inflict injury, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

12.

Safe storage measures have a demonstrated protective effect in homes with children and teenagers where guns are stored.

13.

There is a wide consensus among medical professionals, police chiefs, gun control advocates and gun rights groups that applying trigger locks or using lockboxes to store unsupervised guns in the home promotes health and safety.

(Ord. No. 13353, § 1(B), 1-19-2016)