San Jose leaders are tightening local gun buying laws to pair with California firearms regulations and through recommendations from the city’s watchdog group.
A 10-day waiting period for buying handguns in San Jose will extend to all firearms, and residents under 18 will no longer be able to use the written permission of their parents or guardian to purchase guns after the City Council voted Tuesday on the policy change. Officials across San Jose have taken a more active role in gun control policy after the VTA mass shooting in 2021 left nine dead and a community calling for change. But critics say the city isn’t working fast enough.
The City Auditor’s Office first recommended councilmembers make the policy change in a firearms audit report two years ago.
“The city is currently reviewing the proposed amendment to our policy to ensure consistency with state law regulations governing firearms. The updated policy is intended to align with state requirements while providing clarity and uniformity for all stakeholders,” city spokesperson Kari Chinn told San José Spotlight. “We will share more information as the process progresses.”
Margaret Petros, executive director of Mothers Against Murder, said city officials took a long time to implement the much-needed policy update, though she’s happy to see it done.
“I congratulate San Jose for getting consistent with California law, otherwise there would be conflicting information and confusion,” she told San José Spotlight. “We can’t afford to make mistakes when it comes to deadly weapons.”
Petros’ organization advocates for families of murder victims, especially when laws can be written to prevent violent acts such as mass shootings.
Though not all tragedies are preventable by law, Petros said local elected officials should do everything they can to make sure dangerous people don’t have legal access to weapons.
“Victims’ voices are not heard, and we need to change that,” she said.
San Jose’s policy change comes almost three years after then-Mayor Sam Liccardo approved a policy requiring gun owners to register for liability insurance and pay a fee to help support gun violence prevention efforts. But city officials still lack the structure and support from outside organizations to enforce the policy or collect any fees.
A 2023 San José Spotlight report shows police officers are being trained on best practices to enforce the gun policies.
San Jose’s gun policies haven’t faced any more legal threats since U.S. District Court judges dismissed the last complaint from several tax groups on Sept. 10 in Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association v. city of San Jose.
But Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association President Mark Hinkle said he expects the city to continue to face lawsuits over what he describes as an unconstitutional tax on gun owners.
“I don’t think (the new policy) will have any impact on crime or suicides, and people who don’t want to abide by this law will probably go ahead and just ignore it,” he told San José Spotlight.
Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said San Jose’s public notice regarding its gun policy change is more akin to a marketing scheme given state regulations already call for these policies.
He also said enforcing the gun policy on insurance liability and fee collection will be difficult because city officials have no way of tracking gun owners.
“They don’t even accept the fact that all homeowners and apartment renters have insurance already that covers any accidents with firearms, because firearms are considered a personal property,” Paredes told San José Spotlight. “How are they going to talk to people? We know that the city of San Jose does not want to send a tax collector knocking on every door saying, ‘You have a gun. We need your gun tax.'”
Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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