Less than a month after the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history, San Jose leaders passed a new gun law that requires retailers to video-record all firearm purchases, becoming one of the first major cities in America to do so.
The new ordinance, which was unanimously approved by the city council on Tuesday night, aims to deter straw purchasing — a practice where someone buys a gun for another person, such as felons and minors who are barred from owning firearms.
“We know a significant number of crooks and gangs get firearms through straw purchasing,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo. “This set of ordinances is really focused on narrowing the flow of guns to those which are clearly legal and hopefully doing something to deter the flow of guns that are unlawful to own.”
Implementing the new law is just one part of a comprehensive 10-point gun control plan that Liccardo unveiled last week in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at a San Jose rail yard where a disgruntled VTA employee fatally shot nine of his co-workers and then turned the gun on himself.
The mayor’s plan also calls for separate ordinance that would require gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay a fee to cover taxpayer costs associated with firearm violence. The council is expected to consider that proposal later this fall.
Liccardo first announced that he wanted to make changes to the city’s gun safety ordinance, including mandating that gun retailers video record firearm purchases, in February 2019. He said the adoption of this proposal was delayed, in part, due to the pandemic.
San Jose will become the largest city in California and one of the first major cities in the U.S., behind Chicago, to adopt legislation requiring gun retailers to videotape transactions. Several smaller California cities, including Campbell, El Cerrito and San Carlos also have similar laws. Walmart — the nation’s largest gun seller — began voluntarily videotaping gun sales in 2008.
Liccardo said he is “trying to lead an effort to bring other cities and hopefully the state along” in also taking this step.
Gun-rights advocates, like the Sacramento-based Firearms Policy Coalition, quickly slammed the new ordinance, calling it “outrageous and unconstitutional.”
The organization added that it “will not hesitate” to challenge the city’s policies in federal litigation and “take every possible action to block their enforcement.”
“It is outrageous that Mayor Liccardo wants to use ‘Big Brother’-style omniveillance to record gun owners’ every move, violating the privacy of millions, especially at-risk firearm purchasers,” the coalition wrote in a statement. “This Orwellian requirement would be rightly universally opposed were the City to impose similar video and audio-recording mandates in mosques and churches, book stores, or abortion clinics.”
Gun sellers will be required to keep a copy of the recordings for at least 30 days — a compromise between concerns over privacy and giving an opportunity for the footage to be reviewed, if necessary, for criminal investigations or court proceedings. Businesses have three months to comply with the new rule.
The ordinance also bans the sale of guns or ammunition from residences in San Jose, mandates a license for the sale, transfer, or advertisement within the city of concealable firearms and ammunition and requires that sellers maintain an inventory of firearms and ammunition on a yearly basis.
Under the ordinance, gun retailers must train employees to question and determine whether each potential customers is attempting to buy a firearm for another person. They are also required to display signs with information about gun laws, suicide prevention and domestic violence.
“Nobody will ever suggest that there is anything we can do to eliminate all incidents (of gun violence),” said councilmember David Cohen. “But our goal is to make San Jose safer and to be a model for what cities can do to makes sure guns don’t fall into the wrong hands.”