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State Senator's bill to prevent gun violence takes effect in 2015

Jessica Paterson

Local Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson authored eight senate bills this year that take effect Thursday. One of these aims to help prevent gun violence.

Senate Bill 505 requires law enforcement agencies to create policies encouraging officers to search California's database of gun purchases before conducting a 'welfare check.' 

She says that this would have been helpful in the case of the Isla Vista killings in May, when roughly three weeks before the massacre, law enforcement visited Elliot Rodger to check on his well-being, but were not aware of firearms.

Jackson said that although they may not have been able to seize Rodger's guns, a database search could have helped them better assess potential threat.

"Allowing law enforcement the option to just check that database just to see whether or not there are any firearms in the house is something that could potentially save lives," Jackson said.  "You can never fully make sense of a senseless tragedy and senseless loss of life, but if you can create positive change around that issue, then it certainly does help."

In 2014, more than 900 state and assembly bills were chaptered into law, but not all take effect at the start of the year.

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