Firearms Policy Coalition
In a world in which schools suspend second graders for eating Pop Tarts into the shape of a gun, California Senate Bill 456 would create a dangerous new statutory vehicle for anti-gun school officials to attack firearms-related speech that are not “true threats.”
Your FPC submitted this opposition letter explaining how SB 456, in its current form, likely violates the First Amendment protections against government infringement of the right to free speech.
Under the controlling Ninth Circuit case of United States v. Bagdasarian, “A statement that the speaker does not intend as a threat is afforded constitutional protection and cannot be held criminal.”
SB 456, however, would allow the actions that school personnel or law enforcement to be used as “evidence” that “the threat was reasonably understood as true,” a standard significantly less strict than the prevailing First Amendment precedents.
Additionally, the bill fails to explain what language would be sufficient to be considered a “threat” – leaving one of the most critical factors in this matter open to subjective interpretation.
Not only does SB 456 create a new misdemeanor crime, it also provides that “[a] person convicted of violating this section….is liable to a public agency for any reasonable costs of the emergency response to the person’s threat by that public agency.”
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