Senator Roth’s Landmark 2024 Gun Violence Prevention Act Passes California Legislature

Sacramento--The 2024 Gun Violence Prevention Act, Senate Bill (SB) 902, by Senator Richard D. Roth (D-Riverside), has passed the California Legislature and heads to the Governor’s desk for his signature. SB 902 adds persons who are convicted of severe animal cruelty laws to the state’s firearm prohibition list for ten years, as other violent criminals are.

“Our Gun Violence Prevention Act furthers our state’s gun violence prevention efforts by ensuring that people with a history of violence are unable to access firearms,” said Roth “Animal cruelty is a known predictor of current and future violence, including crimes of assault, rape, murder, arson, domestic violence, and sexual abuse of children.

SB902 introduced by Roth and Senator Anthony Portantino (D- Burbank) imposes a 10-year firearms prohibition on those convicted of a misdemeanor for extreme acts of animal cruelty, including maliciously and intentionally maiming, mutilating, torturing or wounding an animal, or maliciously or intentionally killing an animal, joining the other 50 misdemeanor charges that result in the same prohibition.

“I’m proud to be a joint author of SB 902, along with my colleague Senator Roth. This is a critically important common-sense gun violence prevention measure that will help keep guns out of the hands of violent convicted criminals,” said Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank).

“SB 902 is a much-needed bill to prevent future violence because empirical evidence shows that abuse towards animals is strongly associated with violence against other persons,” said a statement in support by the California District Attorneys’ Association. “By imposing this prohibition of firearms for those convicted of qualifying crimes, this bill directly removes one such tool that an abuser can use to inflict violence on others. This problem was similarly identified federally, which prompted Representative Katherine Clark during the 115th Congress to introduce H.R. 6278, which would have also extended the federal firearm prohibition to those convicted of misdemeanor animal cruelty. While the attempt in Congress was unsuccessful, SB 902 is this Legislature’s opportunity to address this problem in California.”

“Given the link between violence against animals and violence against humans, a single year of probation is not enough time for a convicted animal abuser to be barred from lawful access to firearms. SB 902 seeks to restrict these offenders’ ability to purchase or possess guns for ten years after a conviction of misdemeanor animal abuse to ensure a safer community for us all – people and animals alike,” said Michael A. Hestrin, District Attorney of Riverside County.

 “There is a direct link between acts of cruelty to animals and violence toward humans, including child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse, and other violent behavior. A 2017 study showed that 89 percent of women who had companion animals during an abusive relationship reported that their animals were threatened, harmed, or killed by their abusive partner. In one study of families under investigation for suspected child abuse, researchers found that pet abuse had occurred in 88 percent of the families under supervision for physical abuse of their children. For these reasons, GIFFORDS supports SB 902, as amended, and we thank you for your work to pass this bill into law to make California safer from gun violence,” wrote Lindsay Nichols, Policy Director of GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords.