Should public data be available to ALL who requested, or just a preferred few?
That’s the question at issue in Sen. Pan’s SB 536, which gives preferential treatment to anti-gun researchers.
Last year the legislature appropriated funding and established the University of California Gun Violence Research Center. Opponents of the bill argued that it would be a sole-source contract for Dr. Garen Wintemute, a noted anti-gun researcher at UC Davis. Oh, no, supporters insisted. Not surprisingly, funding quickly went to Dr. Wintemute.
Now Sen. Pan wants to require the DOJ to share information from databases relating to Gun Violence Restraining Orders - orders which result from secret hearings based on hearsay evidence - with Dr. Wintemute and his minions, while not requiring DOJ to share the same data with other organizations for the purpose of research.
You know what that means.
If pro-Second Amendment researchers want access to this PUBLIC information, the DOJ has the discretion to deny the request.
Do you really think the DOJ would share the database if it could possibly show that California’s overbearing laws don’t prevent gun violence? Of course not.
The larger point, though, is that if data is publicly funded, it should be available to all who request it.
Help us fight SB 536 below by sending an email to your Senators NOW!