CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 4

Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry
(Principal coauthors: Senators Dodd and McGuire)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Grayson, Levine, and Wood)

January 17, 2019

Relative to firearms.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AJR 4, as introduced, Aguiar-Curry. Firearms.
This measure would urge Congress to swiftly enact House Resolution 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, to require background checks for all firearm sales.
Fiscal Committee: NO  
WHEREAS, According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 40,000 Americans were killed by firearms last year, including homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths; and
WHEREAS, Incidents of school shootings, mass shootings, ambushes of police officers, and other senseless gun violence have become far too commonplace; and
WHEREAS, Californians have demanded action to end the tragedy of gun violence that impacts the lives of too many Americans each day; and
WHEREAS, California has led the way in common sense firearm policy, requiring that all sales and transfers in the state be made through a licensed dealer, thus facilitating a background check of the purchaser or recipient in each such transaction; and
WHEREAS, When background checks are used, they keep firearms out of the hands of felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill; and
WHEREAS, Loopholes in current federal law allow these individuals to obtain firearms without undergoing a background check; and
WHEREAS, These lenient federal laws weaken the effectiveness of California’s sound firearm policy by allowing restricted persons to purchase firearms out of state and bring them into California; and
WHEREAS, A group of Democrat and Republican Members of Congress have authored the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 in the form of House Resolution 8, which will require background checks on all firearm sales; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges Congress to swiftly enact House Resolution 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, and help reduce the tragedy of gun violence by bringing effective, common sense firearm policy to the whole country; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the Minority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.