SAN JOSÉ, CA – (NEWS RELEASE / SAN JOSE MAYOR’S OFFICE) – San José continues to recover from a tragic mass shooting that took nine lives at the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) yard, yet in the 13 days since, San José has experienced 8 more gun-related acts of violence, including 3 more homicides, one officer-involved shooting of an individual armed with a handgun, and 4 shooting-related injuries. Mayor Sam Liccardo, along with Vice Mayor Chappie Jones (D-1), Councilmembers Raul Peralez (D-3) (who was not present), David Cohen (D-4), Magdalena Carrasco (D-5), announced a series of proposals to undertake a common-sense “harm reduction” approach to gun violence. They were joined at a press conference by Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, Moms Demand Action volunteer Yvonne Murray, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence Litigation AttorneyEsther Sanchez-Gomez, and Co-President of the Winchester/Cadillac Project Hope Association, Maria Ines Ortega.
Among the proposals are two innovative approaches to gun safety that no city or state in the United States has yet implemented. First, with Council approval, San José would become the first city in the nation to require that every gun owner have liability insurance coverage for their firearms, to incentivize safer behavior from gun owners, and to compensate many injured victims. Second, San José would become the first U.S. city to require gun owners to pay a fee to compensate taxpayers for the public cost of responding to gun-related injuries and death, such as for emergency medical and police response. Failure to comply with either of these mandates would subject the gun owner to the seizure of the weapon and potential fines.
In addition, Mayor Liccardo announced that San José would invite cities throughout California to join San José on an amicus curiae brief to support the 9th Circuit appeal of the recent federal district court decision to invalidate California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons.
The proposals include several other preventative, common-sense measures to reduce gun harm in the San José community, such as strengthening the effectiveness of gun violence restraining orders, preventing “straw purchases” of firearms, and requiring fingerprinting for ammunition purchases. It calls for a community-based, crowd-sourced prevention campaign that will enable community members to provide more timely intervention from mental health providers at the first signs of trouble. Finally, it urges a convening between local and federal law enforcement to more clearly understand communication protocols, and to identify the breakdown following U.S. Customs officials acquired information in 2016 about the high-risk nature of the assailant in the San José VTA yard shooting.
Mayor Sam Liccardo observed that “In the nearly two weeks since the mass shooting that devastated the families, friends and coworkers of nine of our community members, San José has seen a spate of ongoing gun violence that has left us with more lives lost, more devastated families, more disabling injuries.” Liccardo continued, “Cities cannot wait for Congress or the courts to protect their residents from gun violence–cities like San José feel the toll daily, and we need to take action.”
The proposal covers an extensive array of common sense gun harm reduction actions, including:
- Reducing Gun Harm through an Insurance Mandate: Insurance-based mechanisms can encourage firearm owners to behave more safely–by taking safety classes, using gun safes, installing trigger locks–and can compensate injured victims. Insurers have long used risk-adjusted premiums to reward good driving and incentivize use of airbags and other safety features, reducing per-mile auto fatalities by 80% in four decades. Similar approaches can mitigate gun risk, since4.6 million children live in a household where a gun is kept unlocked and loaded, and nearly 500 Americans also die from preventable, unintentional shootings every year, including many children.
- Reducing the Public Cost of Gun Violence: Direct costs of gun violence to California taxpayers for gunshot-related medical treatment, police response, ambulance transport, and the like exceeded $1.4 billion in 2018. Taxpayers should not subsidize the cost of the harm resulting from gun use. Requiring gun users to pay fees will help fund critical emergency medical and police response and reduce taxpayer burdens.
- Impounding Guns from Those Who Don’t Comply: Of course, criminals won’t obey these mandates. Yet together, these rules create a constitutionally-compliant mechanism to enable law enforcement to impound guns from high-risk individuals unwilling to follow the law.
- Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVRO): Increasing public education, updating law enforcement training, and sponsoring state legislation to strengthen compliance with GVRO’s, and to enhance sanctions for willful violations.
- Assault Weapons Ban: San José invites other cities to join its amicus brief to support an appeal to the recent Miller v. Bonta decision, which overturned California’s 32-year-old ban on assault weapons.
- Ghost Guns: San José will implement an ordinance to fill a gap in state law, making it illegal in San José to possess, manufacture, or assemble a “ghost gun” — an untraceable firearm, lacking any serial number, that owners can buy online and assemble at home.
- Straw Purchasing and Suicide Prevention: In weeks, Council will consider a final ordinance requiring gun stores to video and audio-record all gun sale transactions to reduce the number of illicit straw-purchases, staff training, and posting of information about suicide prevention and access to mental health services.
- Ammunition Checks: If pending federal litigation results in overturning the 2016 California mandate for background checks on all ammunition purchasers, San José will move forward on a specific mandate to require fingerprinting with all ammunition purchases.
- “Looking Out for One Another”: Partner with regional leaders to create a public campaign encouraging reporting of implied or explicit threats of violence to enable preventative interventions by mental health authorities or law enforcement.
- Gun Buy-Back Programs: Host more gun buy-backs in partnership with other local levels of government, non-profit and private partners.
- Leveraging Federal Information for Early Intervention: Convene a meeting between the San José Police Department, the District Attorney, and local Federal Bureau of Investigations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, DEA, DHS, and U.S. Customs and Border Control to create better sharing information protocols for high-risk individuals.
Gun violence constitutes an American public health crisis annually claims the lives of 40,000 victims, inflicts 71,000 non-fatal injuries, and unquantifiable grief and emotional harm. While no proposal will end gun violence, common sense gun laws will help to reduce the harm of guns in our community.
These proposals are not the only solutions to reducing gun harm, and they won’t provide a panacea to magically end the scourge of gun violence. We can save lives though, through several interventions to reduce gun harm, working with elected leaders, law enforcement, the criminal justice system and community members must continue to work together to scale the impact of successful efforts to reduce this public health crisis.
Cities have become laboratories of civic innovation, and San José is forging the path forward from which other cities and states can learn, adopt, and adapt –and we can all help save lives together.
We are grateful for the input, counsel, support, and advice from many community partners, including the Heising-Simons Foundation, Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney, The Gifford Law Center, the Office of the City Attorney, the San José Police Department, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Ron Conway, many community-based organizations, and attorneys at the offices of Keker Van Nest and Cotchett, Pitre.
Watch the press conference on Mayor Liccardo’s Facebook Page.
The proposal will be submitted on Thursday and be heard by the Rules Committee on June 16, 2021.
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Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors Head Coach
“Preventing gun violence is the number one issue for me. For every life lost at the hand of a gun, a dream is shattered, a family is impacted, and hearts are broken. We must act. I support Mayor Liccardo’s common-sense measures to protect the San José community from further consequences of gun harm. Together we’re unstoppable, and I hope other cities will join in this fight to take action against senseless gun violence.”
“Preventing gun violence is the number one issue for me. For every life lost at the hand of a gun, a dream is shattered, a family is impacted, and hearts are broken. We must act. I support Mayor Liccardo’s common-sense measures to protect the San José community from further consequences of gun harm. Together we’re unstoppable, and I hope other cities will join in this fight to take action against senseless gun violence.”
Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara District Attorney
“Our law enforcement community is ready and willing to use our red flag law to remove guns from those who are a danger to themselves or others. We need everyone, all of us, to raise the alarm and call 911 so that the next mass shooting never happens.”
“Our law enforcement community is ready and willing to use our red flag law to remove guns from those who are a danger to themselves or others. We need everyone, all of us, to raise the alarm and call 911 so that the next mass shooting never happens.”
Cindy Chavez, County Supervisor
“We cannot take away the damage that has been done to the families and loved ones of the VTA workers who were killed by gun violence. We need to be clear that the immeasurable cost to families, our children and our community must be addressed.”
Chappie Jones, San José Vice Mayor
“America’s gun culture has produced a violent history of mass shootings, countless deaths, and endless victims. Gun violence can touch anyone at any time. As the leaders of this great city, we are committed to doing everything within our power to reduce gun violence by any means necessary.”
“America’s gun culture has produced a violent history of mass shootings, countless deaths, and endless victims. Gun violence can touch anyone at any time. As the leaders of this great city, we are committed to doing everything within our power to reduce gun violence by any means necessary.”
Raul Peralez, San José Councilmember D3
“Recent tragedies such as the VTA and Gilroy mass shootings have shown that no one is protected from gun violence. While no measure can bring any of our lost loved ones back, we can ensure that the steps we take moving forward will reduce gun related tragedies in our City. One life lost to gun violence is one too many and as a gun owner myself I stand committed to sensible measures that will reduce gun violence and save lives in San Jose.”
“Recent tragedies such as the VTA and Gilroy mass shootings have shown that no one is protected from gun violence. While no measure can bring any of our lost loved ones back, we can ensure that the steps we take moving forward will reduce gun related tragedies in our City. One life lost to gun violence is one too many and as a gun owner myself I stand committed to sensible measures that will reduce gun violence and save lives in San Jose.”
David Cohen, San José Councilmember D4
“Now is the time for bold action. We must be resolute and act with determination, especially in light of those lost and countless lives affected by the VTA tragedy. I have no doubt ensuring all gun owners are responsible will save lives and we can no longer wait for others to solve this problem for us. Our city can be a model for others to follow.”
“Now is the time for bold action. We must be resolute and act with determination, especially in light of those lost and countless lives affected by the VTA tragedy. I have no doubt ensuring all gun owners are responsible will save lives and we can no longer wait for others to solve this problem for us. Our city can be a model for others to follow.”
Magdalena Carrasco, San José Councilmember D5
“There is only tragedy to be had when guns and Domestic Violence intersect. DV cuts across socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation and the presence of guns in an already hostile domestic violence situation increases the likelihood of loss of life by 500%. We cannot allow guns and gun violence to rule over our most vulnerable community. We need to make sure guns are out of reach from those who pose a threat to our community.”
“There is only tragedy to be had when guns and Domestic Violence intersect. DV cuts across socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation and the presence of guns in an already hostile domestic violence situation increases the likelihood of loss of life by 500%. We cannot allow guns and gun violence to rule over our most vulnerable community. We need to make sure guns are out of reach from those who pose a threat to our community.”
Shannon Watts, Moms Demand Action, Founder
“The cost of gun violence is far too high in our state. With over 3,000 lives taken by gun violence in our state and nearly 40,000 across the country every year, we can’t afford not to take bold action on gun violence at the local, state, and federal level. As a California resident, I continue to be impressed and inspired by the leadership of Mayor Liccardo and call on fellow lawmakers to quickly follow his lead.”
Allison Anderman, Senior Counsel, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
“Giffords Law Center applauds Mayor Liccardo for his comprehensive gun violence prevention proposal that would make San José the first city in the state, and likely the country, to require gun owners to carry liability insurance and contribute to the astonishing costs of gun violence. Because America lacks a critical mass of federal legislators who are willing to take action to address our unparalleled and preventable levels of gun violence, it falls upon the states and local communities to innovate and legislate to protect residents. Thank you to Mayor Liccardo and the other members of the City Council who, with this proposal, are doing just that.”
Rachel Michelson, California Chapter of Moms Demand Action in San José, Volunteer
“Our city is all too familiar with the devastating impact of gun violence. These proposals are
important steps to prevent gun violence and its impact on the communities that bear the brunt of this public health crisis. We are grateful to Mayor Liccardo’s leadership and commitment to protecting San José residents.”
About the City of San José
With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San José’s transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world’s greatest concentration of technology, talent and development.
