Dr. Richard Pan Introduces Measure to Require the State to Track Gun Deaths

SACRAMENTO –Dr. Richard Pan, a pediatrician and Senator representing Sacramento announced today that he has introduced SB 877 along with Senator Bill Monning, representing Carmel, as the principal co-author.  The bill will require the state to establish and maintain a data-tracking system on violent deaths in the state, including gun deaths. 

“We know that the statistics are staggering – there were more mass shootings in America where four or more people were shot or killed than there were days in the year in 2015, said Dr. Pan. “Gun violence is a threat to public health, yet researchers cannot fully confront the crisis and save lives because we lack tracking.”

“Gun violence constitutes a public health crisis in California and in the nation, yet there is limited research and data on gun violence to help inform policymakers about how to best address this pressing public policy issue, said Senator Bill Monning. “With inaction from Congress on the issue of funding federal research, California needs to take steps to research the issue of gun violence and this bill is the first step forward.”

From 2005 to 2008, the state participated in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), a federal program to collect data from law enforcement, coroners, crime laboratories, and other entities in 14 counties to track violent deaths. According to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website, during its four years of data collection, CDPH compiled detailed information on more than 10,000 violent deaths.  Unfortunately, California was unable to obtain federal funding to continue the program because CDPH was unable to obtain law enforcement records required by NVDRS. 

SB 877 is sponsored by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists and would require the Department of Public Health to establish and maintain a system for collecting data on violent deaths in the state and allow the Department to apply for grant funding for the program.  Specifically, CDPH would contract with counties to collect data on violent deaths from various sources, including death certificates, law enforcement agencies, and coroners. Such data would be used to assess the magnitude of the problem, trends, and characteristics of violent deaths and would be used to assist policy makers and communities as they determine appropriate prevention and education efforts.

Researchers point to the difference in how guns and vehicle fatalities are tracked to demonstrate how we can better prevent gun deaths through data and research.  Guns are now killing just as many Americans as cars, yet the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started a national database in 1975 called the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) which holds detailed datasets for every car death in the nation. By contrast, a unified and complete database for gun deaths is virtually non-existent.  The NVDRS is voluntary and receives no data or incomplete data from many states including California.