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California has the strictest gun regulations in the country, but it also has had more mass shootings than any other state in recent years, from killings in Santa Barbara and San Bernardino to Tehama County and now Gilroy.
Mass shootings are on the rise here and across the nation. An FBI list of 277 “active shooter incidents” from 2000 through 2018 published in April — the 20th anniversary of Columbine — showed a sharp rise during the latter half of the study period. Active shooter incidents averaged 8.6 a year from 2000 through 2009. From 2010 through 2018, that number jumped to an average 21.2 a year, two and a half times more frequently.
Our reporters measured the effect of California’s gun laws and restrictions on rifle and ammunition purchases. They found that while the Golden State may rank 44th in gun deaths, shooters in recent massacres skirted laws by purchasing weapons out of state or assembling the guns themselves. While the effectiveness of banning assault weapons, limiting magazine capacities and requiring background checks for ammunition purchases is hard to determine, several states have enacted similar laws.
But only California enforces a gun confiscation system, which tracks firearm owners. At 13-years-old, the Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS) has helped authorities identify people who should have weapons seized because of felony convictions or mental concerns. According to mortality statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, gun homicides in California decreased by 24% from 1883 in 2006, when the program began, to 1435 in 2017, the latest year for which complete figures are available. Gun suicides, however, increased by nearly as much, at 22%, from 1319 in 2006 to 1610 in 2017. Unclear, however, is whether the APPS is the cause of the decline in homicides and increase in suicides.
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