The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Firearm violence is a significant public health and public safety problem in California and nationwide. Nationally, rates of fatal firearm violence have remained essentially unchanged for more than a decade, as declines in homicide have been offset by increases in suicide.

(b) California has been the site of some of the nation’s most infamous mass shootings, such as those at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, near the University of California, Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, and most recently at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Yet public mass shootings account for less than 1 percent of firearm violence. In 2014, there were 2,939 firearm-related deaths in California, including 1,582 suicides, 1,230 homicides, 89 deaths by legal intervention, and 38 unintentional or undetermined deaths. In communities where firearm violence is a frequent occurrence, the very structure of daily life is affected.

(c) Nationwide, the annual societal cost of firearm violence was estimated at $229,000,000,000 in 2012. A significant share of this burden falls on California. In 2013, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development noted that government-sponsored insurance programs covered nearly two-thirds of the costs of hospitalizations for firearm assaults in California, and about one-half of the costs of hospitalizations for unintentional injuries or those resulting from deliberate self-harm.

(d) California has been a leader in responding to this continuing crisis. However, although rates of fatal firearm violence in California are well below average for the 50 states, they are not low enough.

(e) Too little is known about firearm violence and its prevention. This is in substantial part because too little research has been done. The need for more research and more sophisticated research has repeatedly been emphasized. Because there has been so little support for research, only a small number of trained investigators are available.

(f) When confronted by other major health and social problems, California and the nation have mounted effective responses, coupling an expanded research effort with policy reform in the public’s interest. Motor vehicle accidents, cancer, heart disease, and tobacco use are all examples of the benefits of this approach.

(g) Federal funding for firearm violence research through the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been virtually eliminated by Congress since 1996, leaving a major gap that must be filled by other sources.

(Added by Stats. 2016, Ch. 24, Sec. 30. (AB 1602) Effective June 27, 2016.)