The Walnut Creek City Council will consider creating an ordinance requiring city gun owners to safely store their firearms in a residence.
A staff report for tonight’s meeting points out California already has a law that “makes it a crime for a person to negligently store or leave a firearm in any location within premises under the person’s custody or control, and do so when the owner knows, or should know, that a child is likely to gain access to it without a parent or guardian’s permission, unless reasonable action is taken by the person to secure the firearm against access by the child.”
The report also says “Currently, there is no state law that requires safety devices, such as lock boxes or trigger locks, be used on all firearms stored in a residence.”
Several Bay Area cities, including Antioch and Pleasanton, have laws requiring gun owners to keep them locked up.
“Having a loaded or unlocked gun in the home is associated with an increased risk of gun-related injury and death,” the staff report says. “Children are particularly at risk of injury and death from firearms when firearms are not safely secured in their own homes or in homes they visit. Applying trigger locks or using lock boxes when storing firearms in the home reduces the risk of firearm injury and death. Cities throughout California have adopted ordinances requiring the safe storage of firearms in a residence. City Council previously directed staff to present an option to Council regarding the possible adoption of a safe firearms storage ordinance.”
The report cites a 2017 Pew Research Center survey that found 42 percent of adults live in a gun-owning household. Roughly a third of U.S. homes with children have guns and an estimated 4.6 million children live with unlocked, loaded guns in the home.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in 2020 there were 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the United States, and 54 percent (22,292) of the firearm-related deaths were suicides.
The report also says a 2008 report published in the New England Journal of Medicine said living in a home with guns increases the risk of death by homicide by between 40 percent and 170 percent, and the risk of suicide by 90 percent to 460 percent.
The Walnut Creek City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the council chamber at city hall, 1666 North Main Street in Walnut Creek. To watch remotely, go to www.zoom.us (webinar ID: 857 4324 1524, passcode: 694787).
Yeah….Just tell the guy with a hood on his head, hatchet in hand, crawling through your bedroom window to wait while you unlock the trigger lock or get your gun out of the safe, sounds like a plan.
Wait Wait Wait…
You mean yelling : “King’s X” is a myth????????
S … no longer King’s X … just say “Time out” 🙂
OR you could lock your window and call the police if someone is tampering with it. Then get your gun.
How many times has someone broken in while you were home? For me it is zero.
The law is redundant. More liberal idiocy so they can act like they’re doing something. I’ll bet the California Rifle and Pistol Association will be filing a lawsuit if they pass it. They should be spending the. money on. more police.
How about teaching children about gun safety in school instead of the cockamamie woke curriculum! My children and grandchildren have been taught gun safety from a very early age and have respect for and do not fear guns.
I also love the reference to a “current” 2008 report with percentage figures that sound so contrived.
Another attempt at an unenforceable ordinance by California’s illogical politicians intent on creating paranoia…
They’re too busy teaching children hatred for conservatives and why they should change their gender.
Definitely agree, kids need gun safety as well, they are never going be banned, or if they do get to that, then you will have to deal with illegal guns being brought in, you join em or you lose em.
Unless your employment involves the criminal justice system, carefully evaluate the life choices giving rise to circumstances where a loaded firearm in a reasonably secure Walnut Creek home seems necessary.
I’m not some Pollyanna. I’ve owned multiple firearms, including semi-auto sidearms and a semiautomatic rifle with high capacity magazines starting at age 21. Still, some combination of gates, locks, alarms, cameras and German Shepards are more than adequate security measures for an honest person engaged in a legal occupation just about anywhere south of Treat Blvd.
@LL
What is your address???
“High capacity magazines” – meaning what?
Sorry Larry……I do not care about your ignorance of History. For the record, I had a co-worker like you, but is now a Responsible gun owner. He had the FLAWED belief that he would just fight off the bad guys like it was a boxing match with rules.
Also, how are they supposedly going to enforce this? Would it be the same way that they did NOTHING about all of the smash & grabs??
Next thing, the Walnut Creek ‘Door Knockers’ will be dropping by to make sure everyone in the household is Masked.
Apparently the staff didn’t read PC 25105.
More feel-good bull&hit.
And exactly how are they gonna enforce it???????
Stupid politicians…..
@Rollo – High capacity mags= 30-round, 7.62mm. More than enough to protect my house and my neighbors’.
@Anon – Uh, did you read my post, son? For the record, When I couldn’t afford to live in a neighborhood with decent people, I sure as heck didn’t plan to rely on martial arts or MMA training to neutralize a home invasion squad. I didn’t take a position on the proposal. I don’t live there, so the outcome doesn’t matter to me.
Nonetheless, if you live somewhere decent, conduct yourself honorably and secure your home’s perimeter, the probability that a firearm will be necessary for self care defense is quite remote. Not zero, but pretty dang close.
7.62 X 39 or 7.62 X 51 or…..?
Whatever it is, it’s probably not the best choice for suburban or urban home defense since most high powered rifle ammo will go right thru a bad guy at close range and still pass thru walls and into neighbors homes.
Full 30 round magazines are heavy and can get in the way too.
All that firepower may be good if you live on a border ranch or expect to be in a gunfight a hundred yards apart, but confronting a bad guy crawling thru a bedroom window? Geez, why not just fire a bazooka at him?
@Jelly Belly – Agreed that a 7.62×39 semiautomatic rifle is suboptimal for home defense. Such rifles are designed for field combat situations, not civilian self-defense. (I express no opinion on whether such firearms “should” be legal.)
A short-barrel (ideally pistol-grip, where legal) 12-gage pump loaded with buckshot is the ideal choice for neutralizing a threat from a defensive position in close quarters, particularly in a low-visibility scenarios such as a nighttime home invasion.
@ LL ~ Agreed… tho I prefer a 357 mag. w/6″ barrel.
There are less holes to patch if I ever have to fire it in the house… and you never want to do that if it can be avoided.
Have you ever heard what a killing in the house can do to it’s market value?
Many people are afraid of ghosts or bad karma…then it’s hard to sell.
One dead burglar can cost you thousands.
I also use the Blink camera system all around the house perimeter plus a Simply Safe alarm system for the doors & windows.
The only drawback is that raccoons, opossums, feral cats, coyotes and foxes are constantly getting caught on the Blink cameras which alert me with a tone as movement is detected in the wee hours of the morning…. so if I really need a good nights sleep I have to turn the volume off.
LOL 😂
What about chainsaws they are dangerous too!
In the US alone there are over 30,000 injuries relating to chainsaws each year.
https://fireandsaw.com/chainsaw-accidents-and-injuries/
Love it.
How many people ar einjured from kitchen knoves each year?
Average over 434,000
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23849364
DO NOT COMPLY. PREPARE FOR WAR. ITS COMING. MUCH RUMORS OF AN INVASION FROM CHINA AND RUSSIA. GET READY.
I don’t need to read the Pew research center survey. I can smell it.
We are already invaded…open your eyes, look around you.
Great idea, when a burglar breaks into my home, all I have to do is ask him to wait a couple of minutes while I unlock my gun. Everybody knows a polite burglar will comply.
Here’s what will happen if this becomes law and somebody breaks into your home. You grab your unlocked gun and shoot him, if he survives, he gets off on a plea deal because we have weak liberal DA’s and judges, and you are arrested and convicted because you violated city ordinance. Then he will sue you for his medical bills and mental anguish. If you killed him, his family will sue you for wrongful death.
Little by little, the Dems are taking away our God given, and constitutional rights.
Sorry blue lib prog politicians. You’ve lost my trust in anything you say. Every policy you dream up I immediately assume you are somehow lying about risk and lying about how you will improve it. Before Covid I was all for gun control. Now I will go nowhere near it. You will never tread again.
How about requiring visitors from Baypoint, Antioch, Oakland, etc…to pass through a metal detector before entering the City?
@Chuckie – Plenty of homegrown dirtbags in Concord, Pacheco, Martinez and P-Hill, too. I lived among those people long enough to know that its not just a “bad people from over there” problem. It’s just a little bit less bad down there than over the hill.
Re Oakland? I’ll take Crocker Highlands, Montclair, Rockridge, etc. over the monument or Clayton road corridors any day.
54% are suicides?
Even if you could eliminate guns altogether it wouldn’t change the suicide numbers…. they’d find a rope and a tree, a razor, a bridge, a bottle of pills…
Start treating mental patients more seriously, confining / committing them before they can harm others and/or themselves…. actually do something to stop them before they snap.
That would reduce gun violence and suicides.
Suicide is for quitters anyway…
I gotta disagree Larry. Suicide is the best solution for some people and their problems… like that guy who murdered his girlfriend and left her poor family in limbo worrying where she was for so long, they finally found her body and he killed himself…… good choice.
If I had done something so stupid that it cost innocent lives like say bungled an evacuation so badly that a lot of people got blown up and hundreds were left abandoned in a hostile nation…along with 80 billion dollars worth of weapons and military equipment for terrorists to use for their missions of torture and death….Well I’d shimmy up the White House flag pole and hang myself.
Maybe the Walnut Creek City Council should consider locking up their criminals first…
@ donk
The invasion will be coming from Oakland. Broadway Plaza has already been turned into ground zero for shoplifters by Diana and Soros. Here’s a hint if you want to have fun next time you’re down there. Look for the large groups of loud, obnoxious ladies strutting around and arguing with customer service people with their multiple over filled bags from all the top luxury stores…..
First you lock up and keep locked up all violent criminals! Then you can talk to us about gun storage.
Not aware that unsecured guns have been a problem in Walnut Creek.. Maybe they are thinking there will be a lot of home burglaries. Weapons getting stolen.
Are these the same guys that passed a law against restaurants handing out utensils to reduce litter, while 10,000 masks blow across the streets, canals and parks of the city?
The last time I bought a gun I signed something saying I’d keep it locked in a safe. Most of my guns are locked up, but not all of them. Got 2 that are ready to go if someone tries to come into our house.
We don’t have kids, so that’s not an issue.
“The report also says a 2008 report published in the New England Journal of Medicine said living in a home with guns increases the risk of death by homicide by between 40 percent and 170 percent, and the risk of suicide by 90 percent to 460 percent.”
Correlation/causation. Do you own a gun because you live in a neighborhood where you are more likely to be assaulted and killed? Clearly it’s your gun’s fault! Did you buy a gun because you were planning on killing yourself? Also the gun’s fault!
And how in hell can anyone believe that 2008 NEJM quote?
“Increasing death by homicide by between 40-170 percent and risk of suicide by between 90-460 percent….” C’mon – my dog can do math better than those morons .
That shows they know NOTHING about statistics…NOTHING!
A solution to a problem that does not exist…
Typical libs seeking control & restriction
The irony of this from someone who doesn’t know how to spell “loser”.
Ballyhoo politicizing so they can keep their posts on the council. Either that or they have PTSD from the pandemic (or both).
I assume the next logical step will be to ensure compliance, any time a police officer visits your home such as if you were burglarized, they will be able to search your house for infractions. Later is step two, random searches of houses like sobriety checkpoints. Three, you really don’t need it according to their judgment since it is a safe neighborhood, and they will keep it for you. And what about quartering some illegal aliens in your unused bedroom since really you are just a colonist anyway. You did not build that.
Coming from someone whose Party can’t tell you what a woman is. Pretty ironic, actually.
.
It’s a proposed do-nothing, “feel good” ordinance.
.
Ummm, as far as I know it IS State Law to lock up your firearms with a trigger lock or in a safe. In order to purchase my last firearm, I had to retake the test. The test mandates the storage of firearms. Plus you are not allowed to leave the gun store unless you purchase a safety lock.
This is stupid a responsible person is already locking up there guns.A law is not going to make those people comply.If there gun is used to commit a crime punish them accordingly.Eye for an eye.
@Rollo Tomasi….But Mickey has his spelling participation trophy on a shelve with all his other ones.
lock up the mentals first….
Well, that’s unconstitutional.
Soooo a municipal code infraction?
Would they DA add this charge to someone who’s been the victim of a burglary and had their gun stolen?
Would the Walnut Creek police department fine someone for this? All of $100?
When seconds matter, police are only minutes away.
No you are wrong. Police are not minutes away.
Try living out in a rural area.
They’ll get here “eventually”.
How long do you have from the time you buy & register a new gun ~~~ or from the time you file a newly required affidavit declaring that you own gun(s)~~~ before the BROWN SHIRTs pound on your door to demand an inspection of your gun “security?”
I mean, Really?
I don’t believe the BROWN SHIRTS are going to be pounding on your door. They are just going to quickly leave your package on the porch and jump back in their truck. They have to many deliveries to fool around with the likes of you.
They cite ONE report from 2008 and ONE survey from 2017…..and didn’t even bother reading the state laws.
More proof that the useless POS politicians need to be kicked to the curb.
Sorry, criminal activity everywhere constitutes being locked and loaded at all times.
Should I be the victim of a home invasion, I will deal with the invader. I will promptly lock my legal weapon in my secure safe.
Am I obligated to lock the invader’s weapon in my safe also?
I mean, after all, the invader is the victim. Everyone knows that, silly………
This is the problem. These people don’t own guns because when you purchase a firearm you have to fill out what type of gun safe you currently own. If you don’t own a gun safe you have to buy a gun locking mechanism for storage from the gun dealer. It’s a fake attempt to gain points.
When deployed with the USMC … we slept with our weapons … now that Khaliforniya is pretty much a combat zone … might be a good idea to take a page out of the Marine Corps’ playbook.
I spoke against it at the council meeting.
108RS
The better question is, how will this law be enforced?
Will police officers start coming to every registered gun owners home who lives in Walnut Creek asking to check and see if all their registered firearms they have on file are properly locked up?
Without children present, ours are hidden yet within easy reach; loaded; unlocked; and well-maintained. We’ve added blinding strobe lights and red laser pointers for better odds. Hey, we’re old and bad guys aren’t playing either. Old makes you a target.
BTW: Defending ourselves is not a right government bestows or manages – we individually possessed that prior to government.
Peace out.