Comment on Brown signs bill requiring guns to be locked when left in cars

California law already requires that firearms be securely stored in vehicles, but law enforcement officers were exempt from the rule. The new law applies to all gun carriers, including law enforcement, and comes after a slew of firearms stolen from officers’ vehicles were used in killings, including the deaths of Kathryn Steinle, who was shot on Pier 14 last summer, and Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos. “We need to take every preventive action we can to remove illegal and stolen firearms from our streets, including make storage of guns safer,” Lee said. Law enforcement officers will also now be allowed to purchase firearms considered unsafe for untrained civilians, per legislation signed by Brown. The governor vetoed a bill that would have allowed spouses and domestic partners to share joint registration of firearms and another that would have lifted a $100 fee cap on concealed weapon permits at the discretion of police chiefs and sheriffs.