We reached out to San Diego County Gun Owners PAC (SDCGO) Executive Director Michael Schwartz for details on San Diego’s firearm storage vote. SDCGO gave a 15-minute presentation and rallied two-dozen members to attend and speak against the measure at both council meetings.
“We were pretty disappointed in Kersey”, said Schwartz. “I spoke to him before the first vote and he led me to believe that he did not agree with the measure, but did not want to vote against it because it might affect a run for mayor. He also led me to believe that he would make a motion to require the maximum penalty to be an infraction rather than a much more serious misdemeanor. But Kersey didn’t show up to vote at the first meeting.”
At the first reading of the proposal, the vote was 6 to 2 in favor of passing the proposal into law. Council Members Chris Cate and Scott Sherman were the two opposition votes and Kersey did not attend. Schwartz said, “At the second reading Kersey did not make a motion at all, He just asked Mara Elliott if she could assure him it would always be an infraction. She told him no, it is up to the prosecutor. No motion was made to amend the regulation so no vote could be made to force a violation of the new law to only be an infraction. This regulation now has the potential to really ruin the lives of gun owners in San Diego.”
A misdemeanor gun-related conviction can result in jail time, a hefty fine, and the loss of a gun owner’s rights to keep and bear arms. The new gun storage law has always been written so that a violation could be a misdemeanor or an infraction. The decision is up to the prosecution and it is the city attorney’s office that prosecutes misdemeanors within the San Diego city limit; not the district attorney.
The video of the hearing can be viewed HERE. Kersey starts his remarks with an emphasis on child safety, but the storage law has nothing to do with child safety. California Penal Code §§ 25100, 25105 already makes illegal keeping or leaving a loaded firearm in a place where the gun owner knows (or should have known) that a child under the age of 18 is likely to gain access to the gun without permission of the child’s parent or guardian. San Diego’s gun storage law does nothing to bolster or alter that.
In the video, at the 54: 25-minute mark, Kersey asks City Attorney Mara Elliott if she would commit to prosecuting violations of the law as an infraction rather than a misdemeanor “where ever possible”. Elliot made clear that she could not commit to treating each conviction as an infraction. “I was surprised. Kersey represented to me that he’d make the motion and fight so a violation would be an infraction in every case. And I’d bet he would have a ‘second’ to support his motion and force a vote. But he didn’t do any of that. Then he went on to highlight some of the situations where he would want to make sure a violation of the storage law would result in a misdemeanor.”
Photo by William Isted
