The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California experiences unacceptably high rates of firearm-related death and injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 3,184 gun-related deaths in California in 2017: 1,610 suicides, 1,435 homicides, 86 deaths by legal intervention, 38 unintentional deaths, and 15 deaths of undetermined type.
(b) Mass shootings are changing the character of public life in the state. Since 1982, California has experienced 19 mass shootings, resulting in 137 total deaths. On November 11, 2018, a mass shooting at a nightclub in Thousand Oaks, California, resulted in 12 deaths.
(c) In 2010, the estimated cost of hospital and emergency department care for firearm-related injuries in California was one hundred twelve million dollars ($112,000,000), with Medi-Cal and other government payers responsible for 64 percent of those costs. These high costs occur even though most people who die from firearm-related injuries do so at the scene of the shooting and receive no medical care for their injuries.
(d) Medical costs are only a small proportion (approximately 2 percent) of total societal costs, which are driven primarily by losses in productivity and quality of life.
(e) Medical and mental health care providers are uniquely positioned to help prevent all forms of firearm-related harm. Through the course of their regular patient care, they have opportunities to identify people at risk for such harm, provide evidence-based counseling on risk reduction, and intervene in situations of imminent risk.
(f) On October 30, 2018, the American College of Physicians published an updated position paper with recommendations for reducing firearm injuries and deaths in the United States that “recommends a public health approach to firearms-related violence and the prevention of firearm injuries and deaths” and encourages physicians to “discuss with their patients the risks that may be associated with having a firearm in the home and recommend ways to mitigate such risks.”
(g) Other organizations that have published statements identifying firearm-related harm as a health problem and recommending that medical and mental health professionals engage in efforts to prevent firearm-related harm as an element of their professional practice include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Association of Suicidology.
(h) While many medical and mental health care providers recognize their responsibility to help prevent firearm-related injury and death, many cite lack of knowledge regarding when and how to counsel patients as a principal barrier to action. A position statement adopted by the California Medical Association Board of Trustees on July 28, 2017, states that “expanded education and training are needed to improve clinician familiarity with the benefits and risks of firearm ownership, safety practices, and communication with patients about firearm violence.” The position statement further states that “medical schools and residency programs should incorporate firearm violence prevention into their academic curricula” and “California-specific resources such as continuing medical education modules, toolkits, patient education handouts, and clinical intervention information would help to address this practice gap.”
(i) Having assembled a team of experts in firearm-related death and injury, and specifically in provider and patient education to prevent firearm-related harm, the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis is uniquely qualified to research, develop, implement, and evaluate education and training programs for medical and mental health care providers on preventing firearm-related death and injury.
(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 728, Sec. 3. (AB 521) Effective January 1, 2020.)