PA Bill Number: HB2235
Title: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ...
Description: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ... ...
Last Action: Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY
Last Action Date: Apr 25, 2024
California falters in confiscating guns from felons, mentally ill :: 05/02/2015
SACRAMENTO — More than 16,000 registered gun owners remain on a list of felons and mentally ill people who no longer can legally possess firearms in California, despite millions of dollars spent by the state to confiscate those weapons.
The Legislature awarded the California Department of Justice $24 million in 2013 to launch a three-year program to eliminate the backlog by sending newly hired agents to confiscate guns from owners who had lost their rights due to felony convictions, domestic violence actions, mental health conditions or addiction to narcotics, among other things. But halfway through the effort, the department has spent 40 percent of the funds and reduced the backlog by only 3,400 people.
Department officials told state lawmakers Thursday that they could probably reduce the backlog to 10,000 by June 2016, but that additional time and money would be needed beyond that.
The Department of Justice creates the list by cross-checking registered gun owners with records of offenses or situations that prohibit gun ownership. When Justice Department officials requested the funding, they told lawmakers that the prohibited list generally grew by about 3,000 people a year and that they did not have the manpower to keep up. They said they planned to create 50 additional positions with the money to clear the list.
There were 19,784 people on the list then. Today, there are 16,396 people on the list, a reduction of 17 percent.
On Thursday, Stephen Lindley, chief of the Bureau of Firearms at the Department of Justice, told lawmakers that more people are buying guns — more than 500,000 handguns were sold in 2014, up from 200,000 in 2008. The result, he said, is that more people are added to the list each year.
Without the additional funding, he said, the prohibited-persons list would have grown to 28,000.
More guns seized
Lindley said that since July 2013, the funding has helped the department conduct 12,400 investigations of people on the prohibited list and led to 5,500 firearms being seized. That’s up from 11,000 total investigations in the six years leading up to the new funding.
State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, expressed concerns nonetheless.
“There is concern in the Legislature that we need to do better,” said Hancock, who chaired an oversight committee Thursday reviewing the backlog. “The fact is this is a problem.”
The fallout from the department’s inability to clear the backlog could impact Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate. Harris has lauded the prohibited-persons list, which was created in 2001 and became functional in 2006, at one point encouraging the Obama administration to follow California’s lead and create a national program.
Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored legislation to award additional funding to the department, defended the department, saying it has made significant progress.
The $24 million the Legislature gave the Department of Justice to clear the backlog was from a special account funded by fees on gun purchases.
Priorities criticized
Each year, nearly 4,000 names fall off the list after gun rights are restored by a court or the person dies. Sen. Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, said the department needs to focus efforts on people who pose the greatest risk to communities. Anderson questioned the department’s priorities after learning a Bakersfield man whose name showed up on the prohibited-persons list had his home raided, despite the fact that the conviction had been a 40-year-old marijuana case. Agents later returned the firearms, according to media reports.
“Many of the people on this list are on the list incorrectly,” Anderson said. “If we can clear those people off so we can focus on the people who are a real threat to the community, that would be a good thing.”
Since funding was approved, the department has hired 48 agents and 38 have left, primarily for other Justice Department positions. Those are costly losses for the backlog program, given the fact that the department spends approximately $20,000 on background checks, training and equipment for new hires.
“Some were with us for weeks; some were with us for several months,” Lindley said. “It’s very difficult to tell an employee to take a temporary job in lieu of a permanent one.”
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Despite-millions-spent-California-unable-to-6234865.php
