,
7 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
Democratic CA legislators removed language from AB 392 that required police use “reasonable alternatives” to deadly force when possible. Police told them, with zero data, that the sky would fall. But it’s already *law* in deep red Tennessee, which has 21% fewer police killings. 
The fact an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature dropped a common-sense policy that would save lives from police gunfire because of police union lobbyist pressure shows the NRA isn’t the only group (or even the main group) blocking efforts to reduce gun violence in blue states.
Police unions have an obscene amount of influence in California. From 2011-2016, police unions contributed 200x more money to CA campaigns than the NRA, giving to 118 of 120 state legislators. & Democrats who got the most money voted against police reform. checkthepolice.org/california
Now let’s examine police lobbying expenditures. Police unions spend $2 million/year lobbying California state legislators, 9x more than the NRA and exponentially more lobbying expenditures than racial justice orgs in CA have to spend combined. It’s not even close.
Meanwhile, more people are killed by police in California than any other state. Police shootings account for 1 in every 11 gun homicides in the state. Changing the deadly force standard has overwhelming public support. And yet the police lobby won’t let meaningful change happen.
So don’t take these legislators seriously who talk about gun safety legislation and the NRA but refused to pass basic, common-sense gun violence prevention legislation because it focused on gun violence committed by police and their lobby holds the money and power in CA politics.
They’ll likely end up passing some watered down version of the bill. A bill that will hopefully do something but won’t rise to the challenge of meaningfully addressing this issue. And then go on talking about the NRA and gun violence like they really care. Shameful.
