Sen. Isadore Hall, III (D-South Bay) has introduced a legislative package aimed at reducing gun violence in California. The package demands federal action.

From 2002 to 2013, 38,576 Californians were killed in gun violence. In 2013 alone, guns were involved in the deaths of 2,900 Californians, including 251 children and teens. That year, more than 6,000 other people were hospitalized or treated in emergency rooms for non-fatal gunshot wounds, including 1,275 children and teens.

SB 880, jointly authored by Sens. Isadore Hall and Steve Glazer (D-Contra Costa), closes the “bullet button loophole” by redefining assault weapons to include military-style semi-automatic firearms capable of accepting a detachable magazine. It will require such weapons to be registered with the Department of Justice and prohibits the future sale, purchase or possession of the weapons in California.

“SB 880 isn’t about hunting or home protection,” Glazer said. “I believe everyone has a right to hunt and to protect their families from harm in their home. This measure is about closing a dangerous legal loophole that for too long has allowed the use of assault weapons whose sole purpose is to kill a lot of people quickly. We need to make it more difficult for a person to enter a schoolyard, movie theater or workplace with a rapid fire weapon.”

Hall has also introduced SB 872, which will allow local law enforcement agencies to enter into contracts with private schools, colleges or universities to provide on-campus security services.

In 2015, there were 23 shootings on college campuses nationwide, resulting in 17 deaths and injuring 27 people.

“Increasing the number of guns on a school or college campus will not make our schools safer,” Hall said. “SB 872 is a smart approach to help keep students, faculty and staff at private schools and universities safe and an important step to prevent and limit future criminal or terrorist acts on a school campus.”

Hall has also introduced SJR 20, which urges the United States Congress to end the current federal prohibition on publicly funded scientific research on the causes of gun violence and its effects on public health. The resolution also calls upon Congress to appropriate funds to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and other federal agencies to address the public health crisis caused by gun violence.

Since 1996, Congress has prohibited the CDC and other federal agencies from conducting scientific research on the causes of gun violence or its effects on public health. The lack of research has made it more difficult to objectively assess the public health impacts of gun violence and find ways to reduce the number of innocent lives lost every year, Hall added.