Napa County supervisors show unanimous support for gun safety ordinance strengthening state protections

An ordinance that requires those living in unincorporated Napa County to safely store firearms when they’re not in use received unanimous support Tuesday from the Napa County Board of Supervisors.

The ordinance specifically requires residents to store firearms by putting them in a locked container or by having a trigger lock put on them.

The board didn’t officially vote to adopt the ordinance at the meeting — they voted to show their intent to adopt it — but the vote indicates the county is set to join the five Napa County cities that previously passed similar ordinances in the last year, a process that began in St. Helena.

California state law already requires firearms in homes to be locked up if the gun owner knows that a child or someone prohibited from possessing a firearm would be likely to access it. The local ordinances essentially strengthen that law by mandating all firearms be locked up when not in use, regardless of who lives there.

Sheryl Bratton, Napa County’s counsel, said the local ordinances differ when it comes to how violators would be punished.

A violation of the county’s ordinance would be considered a criminal infraction, she said, involving notice and opportunity to have an appeal hearing. In comparison, St. Helena’s ordinance only enacts civil penalties, and the city of Napa includes several potential penalties, including civil and criminal.

Several public comments in support of the ordinance came from members of Napa Valley Moms Demand Action — a part of a national effort to cut down on gun violence and improve gun safety in the United States. The group has successfully pushed for local safe storage ordinances.

That included St. Helena City Council member Anna Chouteau, who brought the idea of the safe storage ordinance to the city. Chouteau said she’s passionate about ending gun violence and has seen its impact on the community, including students.

Chouteau said 120 Americans are killed by gun violence each day, that the presence of firearms in a home triples risk of suicide, and that guns in the home are associated with a higher chance of gun-related homicide.

“Three million American children are directly exposed to gun violence every year,” Chouteau said. “Trauma and lockdown drills shouldn’t be a normal part of growing up.”

St. Helena Police Chief Chris Hartley also spoke in support of the county ordinance. He said that when he was approached by Moms Demand Action and asked to write a safe storage ordinance, he had to give it some serious thought. There were some local opponents, he said, who believed the storage requirement would impair their ability to protect themselves should someone break into their house.

But, Hartley said, that wasn’t a strong argument given how quickly some can retrieve their firearms with certain types of storage. The ordinance, he said, was a source of education about the dangers of unrestricted firearms.

“Most suicides that are committed by teens and juveniles are committed by weapons from their homes or from a friend’s,” Hartley said. “A lot of the mass shootings in our schools that are perpetrated by youth are also using family weapons. So, to me, safe storage is common sense.”

Supervisor Joelle Gallagher said she came from a law enforcement home, grew up with guns in her home and had a family member who died of suicide by firearm. Gallagher said she had experience with suicide prevention and understood how requiring safe storage of firearms could play into people not acting on suicidal feelings when in crisis.

“Generally it lasts about zero to 20 minutes, so if you can prevent somebody from getting a gun in that time span, you can really help to assure they get past the crisis and get resources and don’t actually follow through,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com.