In a state that has some of the nation’s toughest gun control laws, one in four California gun owners own firearms that they somehow managed to buy without undergoing background checks, researchers at UC Davis’ Violence Prevention Research Program reported at a recent meeting.
An estimated 4.2 million California adults own guns, 14 percent of the population. California laws dating back decades make it a crime to buy or sell a gun without requiring the purchaser to submit to background checks.
The checks, conducted via state and federal law enforcement databases, are intended to block people from owning guns if they have a criminal history, have committed acts of domestic violence, or have a history of mental illness.
Researchers Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz and Dr. Garen Wintemute are not sure how gun owners came to get their guns without undergoing the legally required vetting but said they would delve further into the issue.
So will legislators.
“That’s mind-blowing,” Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, who has carried several gun control measures, said when told of the finding. “We pride ourselves on being the most conscientious state in the nation as far as gun safety laws.”
Californians have been known to buy firearms in Nevada, Arizona and other states that have lax background check laws. Whether such purchases would account for the large numbers of purchases carried out without a check was not clear from the survey.
McCarty vowed to investigate how background checks are being evaded and push to close the loopholes. “One person slipping through the cracks is one too many,” he said.
Aimed at better understanding who in California owns guns—and at better addressing firearm misuse, a high profile and lethal public health issue—the web-based study of 2,500 adults was conducted by the California Safety and Wellbeing Survey for the state-funded UC Firearm Violence Research Center.
Wintemute and Kravitz-Wirtz presented their findings Nov. 11 at a gathering of the American Public Health Association in San Diego, but the paper also coincides with the aftermath of a mass shooting last Wednesday that left 12 people dead at a bar in Ventura County. In that case, the gunman, a military veteran who committed suicide at the scene and was described as having had a history of hostile and depressed behavior, had obtained his guns legally.
In 2017, California had 1,612 gun-related suicides and 1,518 gun-related homicides. Yet no comprehensive study of gun ownership in the state has been done since the 1970s.
The researchers found that gun ownership in California is far below national levels: 14 percent here, compared with 22 percent nationally. Gun owners here were also demographically older, whiter and more politically conservative than the rest of the state.
Forty-three percent of the state’s gun owners are 60 and older, and 33 percent are 45 to 59, the researchers determined. Nearly two-thirds are white, 20 percent are Latino, and 68 percent have not completed college. There’s also a partisan divide: 38 percent of gun owners are Republicans, 28 percent are Democrats and 27 had no party preference.
Among the other findings:
• 25 percent of California adults live in households with firearms.
• 40 percent of those households have children 12 or younger.
• 10 percent of gun owners own 10 or more guns. They account for half the firearms in California.
• Assault rifle ownership accounts for 5 percent of firearm ownership.
Most of the respondents said they owned handguns for personal protection. Only 19 percent of long gun owners used their weapons for hunting.
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
This article appears in ‘I Am These People’.
“Theres also a partisan divide: 38 percent of gun owners are Republicans, 28 percent are Democrats and 27 had no party preference.” Not sure who taught them math but these numbers seem pretty even to me.
That’s funny. Saying “assault rifle” on an article about guns. Whoever wrote this has no idea what they are talking about. And why bring up what people use their guns for? Does that even matter? Oh it’s so terrible to shoot on a range apposed to hunting. What a joke. Why list the percent of children under 12? Are you insinuating that those kids are in danger because they live in that house hold?
I’ll tell you right now that I would be more scared of my kid getting hold of a knife than a firearm. Not trying to sound defensive, but this is what scares people. when you write articles that highlight what sounds bad or evil, using terms that are incorrect. Please have someone who uses guns write these posts, not someone who is uneducated.
Why would a “democrat” who owns firearms vote for democrats who want to restrict or remove our 2A rights? … never mind… they’re democrats.
One thing I was looking for in this article was who, exactly, were the people who got the firearms without a background check? Where they gang bangers? Where they felons? Or were they people who purchased their firearms before the background check law?
Are those “assault-rifles” actually assault rifles (as in rifles capable of automatic fire)?
If those “assault-rifles” were merely those classified as “assault-weapons” because they have cosmetic elements and are thus registered, then this number is truly bogus. I would guess rifles built in the AR platform is quite prevalent. In fact, most of the people I see on the rifle range have an AR platform rifle if they have a semi-auto rifle.
Even the “personal protection” stat is really warped in CA. By law you need to keep your firearms unloaded and locked up which means it is technically illegal to keep a loaded long gun next to your bed unless you have some sort of locking locker next to your bed for said long gun… let alone that it might have bullets in them. Besides it’s awkward to carry your rifle around the house for home defense. As for personal defense outside the home… very few are even allowed to carry outside the home thanks to the “May issue but more typically shall not issue” counties like LA. So personal defense for most of us is only while we’re at home. That leaves little choice… have some sort of locked box that is next to the bed that you can hopefully open in time to deal with a threat. But does that mean I won’t use my rifles to defend my home (which is why I have them) if needed? Of course.
ALL of CA’s “common sense” gun laws do nothing to keep anybody safe. Nor do they prevent evil people from doing evil things as we saw time and again whether in San Bernardino or Thousand Oaks or many other cases. When will people realize that laws do not prevent evil people from doing evil things? When will they notice that having laws did not result in the elimination of prisons because if the laws prevented criminal behavior then we shouldn’t need prisons for those who broke the laws? What will it take to get these crooked politicians who want to remove our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights out of office? God help us as we sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of communism!
Assault rifle ownership accounts for 5 percent of firearm ownership.. I would be very surprised that 5% of the California population owned fully automatic rifles. (Thats what an assault rifle is).
This article is nonsense. The State of CA DoJ publishes handgun and long gun sales. There were over 7 million sold in CA in the last 10 years alone. Horrible research when all they had to do was go to the state for data.
This article is utter nonsense. The State of CA, DoJ publishes handgun and long gun sales every year. There have been over 7 million guns sold in CA in just the last 10 years. Lazy research when all they had to do was ask the State of CA.
I put my gun on the table and I says to it , gun go kill someone…… I waited and waited. Nothing happened! People kill people. Or more correctly mentally unbalanced, no empathy people kill innocent people. God bless
Yes, lets continue to associate all law abiding constitutionally protected firearms owners with criminals, the mentally ill, and the homicidal. The continued bad faith discussions around firearms in CA and the country at large keep up the insinuation that somehow people who own firearms are some how ok with senseless murder of innocents or the deaths of children in gun free zones. Shame on you for ridiculous reporting of bad stats and bad faith intentions. Im still waiting on any news outlet to cover the cdc findings of how many defensive firearms uses happen annually. Oh wait, that doesnt fit the narrative of all guns are bad let the government take care of you. Well they are called first responders not first preventers for a reason. This piece is despicable as is our countrys current predicament of having lost its mind. And for the record I have been a democrat my whole life and will never vote for an anti gun candidate henceforth. A pox on both their houses.
I’m here because I recently found out my cousin has been secretly crying every night because her older brother and 16 year old brother were held at gun point in their room while she was asleep in her room and their dad seems to not care about them. This happened back in July after my birthday, and yet I didn’t even know anything about this until today.
Her older brother was told if anyone else was in the house and he replied that there wasn’t. The criminals ran away when they heard someone at the kitchen(it was their dad). Ever since then, my cousin (the one who said “No” to the criminals) has been paranoid all year long. He now only sleeps during the mornings & afternoon and awake at the night. Him and I have been best friends since we were babies. But since we have our own lives now, it’s not always easy to visit him whenever I want. My earliest memories were him, me, and his little sister running and playing tag in the apartment when I was 4 (currently I’m 22).
Side comment:
The government should pay you $2,500-$5,000 when you know someone that ILLEGALLY has a firearm. An extra $1,000 for every gun after the first one. Or something like this where you are given an incentive such as money. Because no one, or at least most people, won’t do this unless they get something out of it.
Example: You get $5,000 after the police imprisons the bad guy you reported to police about having an illegally firearm. And you get an extra $3,000 if the cops find 3 other guns that the bad guy has. So in total you get $8,000 from the government because the bad guy had 4 guns.
Just like Feinstein’s claims of how many criminals her actions have kept from having deadly military weapons, the claim that one in four got guns without going through a background check is pure, unadulterated, unsubstantiated, unproveable Bull Shit.
Thank God we have so many people following the lead of those in other states who have been practicing Civil Disobedience. How many “high capacity” magazines have been turned in, destroyed, or shipped out of California?
How many full automatics and/or military issue firearms are in civilian hands. Practically none.
If what these people say is true, why do they have to lie to get people to follow them?
Sick, commie bastards.
Because most democrats aren’t single issue voters… and since we wouldn’t expect to comply with any “gun turn in” and most aren’t for anything like that we prefer to vote for people who support the MAJORITY of issues and pressure to prevent the rest which works out. Not going to shoot myself in the foot in other areas just over 1 issue…because obedience is not a given…. and ghost guns are easy to get and build..
Just like trump supporters are a loud mouthed minority- so gun control,advocates are a loud mouthed democratic minority who starting to shrink… and pretty rapidly. It’s REALLY more an urban vs rural mindset for the most part.. We live in a rural area. ALL except 1 family is liberal. We ALL own guns. One is an HA. We also mostly have Harleys interestingly enough…. Most of us have several guns such as I. The ONE family that made comments about HATING guns, and do not own any at all are the one REPUBLICAN family in the whole block. However, they live in the city and are weekenders. They plan to retire here… This county went from red to blue and we are gun owners- If fact a homeowner here was a victim of a home invasion robbery- They attacked his son and caused permanent severe brain damage.. The dad had a rifle and went after the guys chased them up the street killed TWO of them wounded the others. One of the robber’s mother was an SF cop who thought she was going to get a conviction on the dad, being a cop and all, and whhoooo wee big city cop. She was quite arrogant and that was a huge mistake. She didn’t “wow” anyone here. Nope. He went free with the county supporting him.
The NRA needs to quit polarizing people. They would have more clout if they stopped being stupid, spreading mythology and animosity. We have liberal gun advocacy groups. Gun owners groups and GASP militias WITH military guidance and cops as well. Not a conservative monopoly on that.
THOUGH letting them believe we don’t is probably a better strategy lol We won’t join the NRA a racist (the wanted gun control in the late 70’s when Black men started arming… leading with Reagan to the Mulford Act.
If we take guns away from law abiding citizens, then the only people that are going to have guns will be criminals.
Heroin and cocaine are illegal however how many millions of people are using it? Making something illegal doesnt stop anybody from using it
And if gun ownership was illegal, how many illegal guns would be sold in this country to criminals?
People kill people The Democrats cant legislate good behavior.
The constitution gave us rights to bear arms without limitations to protect us from foreign and domestic enemies especially a tyrannical government. We shouldn’t have to be jumping through hoops to obtain and carry. Punish those who unlawfully use them case by case, don’t blanket punish us. In actuality we are entitled to have the same weaponry as our military. Good luck with that one. Lol