California Lawmakers Urge Support for Three Gun Control Bills at Site of Recent Tragedy

California officials gathered Monday in Monterey Park and proposed three new laws aimed at preventing more gun violence, three months after a mass shooting in the city killed 11 people and wounded nine at a Lunar New Year dance.

One of the measures, AB 732, would strengthen the process for removing weapons from people who are barred from owning them due to criminal convictions.

The proposal, drafted by Democratic state Assemblymember Mike Fong and sponsored by the Prosecutors Alliance, would require courts to keep cases open until there is proof that defendants have given up their guns. It would also mandate that local law enforcement report all relinquished firearms to a U.S. Department of Justice database.

The second measure, AB 733, would prevent law enforcement or other government agencies from reselling seized guns and ammunition in the community.

Fong, whose district includes Monterey Park, was joined at a news conference by Mayor Jose Sanchez, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and Prosecutors Alliance founder Cristine Soto DeBerry.

“If guns made us safer, we’d already be the safest country in the planet,” Soto DeBerry said. “In this nation, we have more guns than people, but we do not have safety.”

The Jan. 21 massacre was the deadliest shooting in Los Angeles County history. The shooter, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, opened fire on a mostly older crowd of dancers at a dance studio in the city with a large Asian American population. He later died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“Monterey Park, in light of the recent tragedies, has been transformed,” said Sanchez. “And that has become today, an agent of change. The change our community wishes to see is a society that is free of gun violence.”

The third law, AB 1638, would require a translator to be present at emergencies such as mass casualty events in communities where a large number of residents speak a language other than English.

Fong said it’s up to lawmakers to do what they can to address the “endless scourge of gun violence plaguing our country.”

“With shootings happening almost daily at schools, grocery stores, churches and dance studios, we can’t rely on heroes to stop the endless scourge of gun violence plaguing our country,” Fong said. “Lawmakers are the ones who have the power to end this plague, and I’m proud to take leadership on this effort to help get weapons off our streets.”

This story includes reporting from KQED’s Sara Hossaini.