On January 12, California state senator Jerry Hill (D-Mateo) introduced legislation that will “require law enforcement officers to securely stow any handgun they leave in vehicles.”
Hill’s legislation comes after one gun was “stolen from the car of a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger was used to kill…32-year-old [Kathryn Steinle]…who was strolling with her father on San Francisco’s Pier 14 in the late afternoon of July 1.” And Breitbart News previously reported that muralist Antonio Ramos was shot and killed on September 29–with a gun that had been stolen from an ICE agent.
On August 30 the car of UC Berkeley police chief Margo Bennett was broken into while she was jogging and the suspect got her gun, ammunition, badge, ID card, laptop, cell phone, and jewelry. That gun has not been used to commit a crime to date, but it is another incident Hill cites in arguing why his bill is necessary.
The legislation–SB 869–“explicitly requires that any person who leaves a handgun in a vehicle must lock the handgun in vehicle’s trunk, or place it in a locked container that is out of plain sight in the car.”
Hill said, “This is a matter of basic public safety and common sense. My bill would ensure that the requirements for safe gun storage in vehicles are the same for everyone in California — law enforcement officers and civilians.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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