By Mary O’KEEFE

Senator Anthony Portantino’s SB 972 passed the State Senate Education Committee on March 14 with bipartisan support. It will now go onto the Assembly and Senate for a vote.

“I don’t anticipate any opposition,” he said.

The bill requires public, charter and private schools to print a suicide prevention hotline number and/or text crisis line on the back of students’ identification cards, according to a statement from the senator.

“The students have been positive,” Portantino said of feedback he has received from students.

Calling it a “common sense proposal,” Portantino said the bill provides one more way of showing those who feel alone that there are people they can speak with.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24.

When displayed on bridges across the country, a suicide prevention phone number has helped in areas that have seen suicide activity. A study from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida analyzed a period before and after emergency crisis telephones and signage were installed. The three-year study found the suicide rate dropped from 8.3 per year to 6.3.

Portantino added that the majority of students will not need this number, but added, “If we save just one life it is worth it.”

Each school district will be able to determine what hotline it wants to place on the card. Portantino is the lead author of this bill, which was co-authored by Senators Toni Atkins, Jim Beall, Ricardo Lara, Connie Leyva, Josh Newman and Scott Wiener.

Portantino is the lead author in another bill that will affect gun laws, SB1100.

“This bill will raise the age of purchase for long guns to 21,” Portantino said.

At present, the age limit to purchase a handgun is 21. This bill would expand that law to long guns. The bill would also prohibit a person from making more than one firearm purchase within a 30-day period.

“Like most Americans, I was horrified by recent events in Florida. As a father of a high school sophomore, I can’t stop thinking about the unnecessary nightmare that this tragedy caused for the affected families … Our amendments create a simple fix to existing law,” commented Senator Portantino in a released statement.

According to Portantino’s office, over the past 10 years, Californians have purchased more long guns than handguns. Recent data suggests that long guns are becoming a significant piece of California’s gun trafficking problem. Of the 26,682 crime guns entered into the Dept. of Justice Automated Firearms Systems database in 2009, 11,500 were long guns. DOJ has found that half of the illegal firearms recovered from prohibited persons are long guns.

The bill co-authors include Senators Nancy Skinner and Scott Wiener and Assemblymembers Mike A. Gipson and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher.

“If Washington won’t act California will,” Portantino said.

  Mary Okeefe