Dear Council Members, Paola Maciocia and I are both long time Menlo Park residents. In the fall of 2017 we formed the local Peninsula group of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Moms Demand Action is a national volunteer organization that advocates for policies and legislation to reduce gun violence in our communities. We can boast over 6 million supporters nationwide including several hundred in our local area. One of our key efforts is promoting the safe storage of firearms and ammunition. We therefore are thrilled that the City of Menlo Park is considering the adoption of an ordinance which will require all firearms within our city limits to be stored securely in a locked container or disabled by a trigger lock. One of our key values as an organization is equity, however, and we therefore cannot support this ordinance as written due to its inclusion of a provision for criminal penalties for its violation. Criminal penalties will disproportionately affect low income and minority communities because these are the populations most likely to come into contact with police and therefore to be found in violation of the ordinance. There is no evidence that these communities are less likely to store their firearms safely yet they will suffer the most from this penalty provision. We urge you to amend Ordinance 1067 to remove this criminal enforcement provision. A civil fine is a sufficient deterrence and penalty. The cities of Burlingame and Redwood City have already adopted the San Mateo County Model Ordinance with this amendment and the County of Santa Clara also recently approved a similar ordinance which contains only civil penalties. We hope Menlo Park will see that this is the more just and equitable approach. Thank you very much. Leah Elkins and Paola Maciocia Volunteer Leads, Peninsula Local Group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America -- Leah Elkins Peninsula Moms Demand Action Volunteer Elections and Social Media Lead She/Her/Hers Received on Thu Mar 05 2020 - 19:42:32 PST
