Congress passes first gun safety legislation in 30 years 

Barely two days after the Supreme Court repealed a New York gun law that regulated who could carry concealed weapons in public, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety package that deals with red flag laws.

The package has some ties to the Central Coast, too, with U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) of the 24th District championing the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act worth $750 million.

click to enlarge

• Photo Courtesy Of Office Of Salud Carbajal
• HEART OF LEGISLATION Rep. Salud Carbajal called his Extreme Risk Protection Order Act the "heart of the legislation" because of the $750 million grant that supports and incentivizes states to set up red flag laws.

Carbajal's bill, which received House approval earlier in June, is a grant program that aims to incentivize states to set up and administer red flag laws. Under those laws, family members or law enforcement could petition a court to block a person from acquiring firearms if it's proven that they're dangerous.

"We absolutely have more work to do. But it's a major step in saving lives [when it comes to] those that are a danger to others through mass shootings, and those that are a danger to themselves through suicide, despite the setback by the right-wing Supreme Court that is out of step with the American people," Carbajal said. "They demonstrated that in their decision with New York. They took a century-old law and modified it on a whim."

The gun safety package called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act also received support from the Senate, making it the first gun safety legislation Congress has passed in almost 30 years.

The $750 million fund set aside for the red flag piece of that bill package is not only supposed to support the 19 states (California included) that have already implemented red flag laws, it's also meant to encourage other states to adopt the gun safety measure.

California's red flag laws are known as gun violence restraining orders (GVROs). According to UC Davis's Violence Prevention Research Program, GVROs stopped 58 potential mass shooters in the first three years of the state law going into effect on Jan. 1, 2016. Law enforcement officers filed 96.5 percent of the GVROs. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that California had the seventh lowest firearm death rate in the country in 2020.

While Carbajal called his segment of the bills the "heart of the legislation," the package includes other protective measures, too. Some of these include expanding mental health and support services in schools and closing the "boyfriend loophole," which adds convicted domestic violence abusers in dating relationships to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The latter would prevent partners with proven violent behavior from purchasing guns. But Carbajal thinks other laws need to work in tandem for the package to be fully effective.

"This is a major step forward but it's not a panacea. It's not going to solve all the gun violence that we want to reduce," he said. "That's why we need to continue to make sure we're moving other laws forward as well, like reinstating the assault weapons ban that sunsetted years back, like banning high-capacity magazines." Δ