California: San Jose Moves One Step Closer to Finalizing Flawed Locked-Storage Mandate

On Tuesday, October 17, the San Jose City Council voted 6-5 in favor of an  anti-gun ordinance that, if finalized, will require gun owners to store their firearms in certain designated “locked containers” or keep them disabled with a trigger lock whenever they leave home, but would not allow gun owners to store their firearms in most gun safes. There is still time to contact the City Council and voice your opposition before the ordinance is finalized.

Office of the City Clerk

200 E. Santa Clara St.

San Jose, CA 95113

Phone: (408) 535-1260

Fax: (408) 292-6207

Email: [email protected]

The proposed ordinance is a result of last year’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting where the gun ban lobby’s “wish list” of anti-gun-owner proposals was considered. While declining to pursue a number of the more extreme proposals, the Committee voted to forward the mandatory locked storage ordinance to the City Council. NRA / CRPA attorneys submitted a joint-opposition letter to the City Council that pointed out serious flaws with the ordinance.  For one thing, under the ordinance a “locked container” is only adequate if it satisfies both California’s definition of the term “locked container” and is also specifically listed on DOJ’s roster of approved firearm safety devices.

The problem with this sloppy lawmaking is that very few gun safes are actually on the roster of approved firearm safety devices.  That’s because the roster specifically excludes gun safes, which satisfy the state storage law under a different subsection.  That means modern gun safes—which are typically the most secure way to store a firearm—are not a qualifying container under the ordinance. 

As the City Council pushes this flawed ordinance, hundreds of trigger locks that were donated to San Jose are going to waste in a police storehouse rather than being made available for free to the public as intended.  Several years ago, the San Jose Police Department requested and received over 300 donated trigger locks through NSSF’s Project Childsafe® Program.  Those locks were supposed to be distributed free to the public, but instead those locks have done nothing but collect dust. 

Continue to check your inbox and the California Stand and Fight webpage for updates on issues impacting your Second Amendment rights and hunting heritage in California.