Walnut Creek considers ordinance requiring gun owners to lock up firearms

WALNUT CREEK – The Walnut Creek City Council on Tuesday will consider creating an ordinance requiring city gun owners to safely store their firearms in a residence.

A staff report for Tuesday’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).