California can share gun owners’ personal information with researchers, appeals court rules
SACRAMENTO, California — An appeals court ruled that California can continue to provide gun owners’ personal information to researchers to study gun violence, reversing last year’s decision by a lower court that said sharing such data violates privacy rights.
In 2021, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law allowing the state’s Department of Justice to share identifying information from more than 4 million California gun owners with qualified research institutions to help them better study gun violence, accidents and suicides. The information — which the state collects with every firearm sale to conduct background checks — includes names, addresses, phone numbers and any criminal records. Under the law, investigators can use the information and make their findings public, but they cannot release identifying information about gun owners.
In response, gun owners and organizations have sued the state, arguing that disclosure of their information violates their privacy rights. San Diego County Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal ruled last October to temporarily block the law.
But on Friday, a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeals for the Fourth District ruled that the lower court had failed to include the state’s interest in studying and preventing gun violence in its analysis before striking down the law. In the opinion, Associate Justice Julia C. Kelety sent the case back to the lower court and said the preliminary injunction should be reversed.
Attorneys representing the gun owners and firearms groups suing the state did not immediately respond to calls and an email seeking comment.
Friday’s ruling came months after a federal judge declined to block the law in a separate lawsuit.
The data-sharing law is among several California gun measures facing legal challenges. In October, a federal judge again overturned the 30-year-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that the law violates constitutional rights.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that once the data sharing ruling is implemented, the state will continue to provide this information to investigators.
“The court’s decision is a victory in our ongoing efforts to prevent gun violence,” Bonta said in a statement.
He added: The law “serves the important purpose of enabling research that supports informed policymaking aimed at reducing and preventing gun violence.”
Garen Wintemute, director of the California Firearm Violence Research Center at the University of California, applauded Davis’ recent ruling. The center has been working with the state to investigate gun violence.
“The court’s decision is an important victory for science,” Wintemute said in a statement. “For more than three decades, researchers at UC Davis and elsewhere have used the data in question to conduct vital research that simply couldn’t be done anywhere else. We are pleased to return to that important work, which will improve health and safety here in California and across the country.”