A proposed law in California would require school officials to collect gun ownership information from the parents of students attending public schools.
The law would require parents to respond to the requests and answer whether the guns are secured in a way that their children are unable to access them.
The law was drafted by Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino, who said that he decided to take action after a school shooting in a Michigan high school where four people died and seven others were injured by an armed student.
The law would also allow officials to search through backpacks and lockers if there was a credible threat of gun violence made at their school.
“We saw what inaction does in Michigan,” Portantino said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Inaction leads to a tragedy," he added. "By empowering school districts with information and the mandate to investigate, we’re taking that inaction off the table.”
The draft bill said parents would be required to answer questions about their gun ownership at student registration beginning in the 2023 school year, including “questions about the ownership, storage, and accessibility by the pupil of the firearms."
If there is a credible threat of gun violence at the school, officials could use the information to search the lockers, backpacks, and cars of students whose parents owned guns.
“Go find those weapons before they get used to kill a kid,” Portantino explained.
California is one of the worst states when it comes to the rights of gun owners. Last month, the city of San Jose voted to be the first city in the U.S. to require gun owners to pay a fee in order to own a gun and to purchase liability insurance. Gun rights groups have vowed to sue to fight the new restriction.
