Californians are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars because the state is apparently not doing a good enough job at keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.
t costs the state or you, the taxpayer, 285-million dollars a year for arresting and jailing people for possessing a gun even though prohibited. That’s according to a study by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
“Most states in the country, including California, rely on the mix of the ‘honor system’… trusting convicted violent offenders to voluntarily do this while no one is looking.”
Attorney Ari Freilich says the state does have a program to confiscate guns from those not allowed but it’s backlogged and expensive.
“That’s more than 3,200 people who are convicted of serious crimes and kept their guns.”
The study shows more than 7,000 people illegally kept their guns in 2014… half of them after a criminal conviction.
James Rojas KABC News
