Gun control

America is in the midst of a gun violence crisis. Every week, there is a news story about a mass shooting in our public spaces or schools, or a domestic violence shooting, or a gang shooting. The shooting needs to end. While California leads the country in gun control, clearly it is not enough. There are more public mass shootings in the US than in any other country in the world. We are less than 5% of the world’s population, yet we are 31% of global mass shooters. Americans are 25x more likely to be killed by a gun than the rest of the developed world. How do we fix what is broken?

  • Ban the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons and “bump stocks” that effectively turn guns into automatic weapons

  • Close the “gun show loophole” so that the unrestricted sale of guns is pulled back from the shadows

  • Create a six month buy-back program of semi-automatic weapons for the public, which does not allow compensation in the form of a gun manufacturer “gift card”

  • Ban the sale of guns to anyone convicted of a violent crime, particularly domestic violence. Women are 5x more likely to die from domestic violence when there is a gun in the household. In fact, violence against women is a powerful predictor of mass shootings: 54% of mass shooting perpetrators between 2009-2016 had a history of domestic violence

  • And most crucially, we must properly enforce the existing laws around gun control. 34% of mass shooting perpetrators were already prohibited from possessing firearms at the time of the shooting.