Senate Public Safety Committee advances bills on gun dealer oversight, xylazine, school threats and diversion; several sent to appropriations

The Senate Public Safety Committee met March 25, 2025, and voted to advance a set of public-safety and criminal-justice measures to subsequent committees, including appropriations and rules. Committee members heard detailed testimony from lawmakers, law-enforcement representatives, medical and veterinary groups, civil-rights organizations and people with lived experience.

The most contested items on the agenda related to firearms policy and the scheduling of the veterinary sedative known as xylazine. Other bills considered included measures to clarify judges' advisements on immigration consequences of pleas, to standardize mental-health diversion procedures, to implement parts of Proposition 36, and to require consistent access to basic hygiene products in county jails.

Senate bill 15 (Blake Speer) — dealer oversight Sen. Blake Speer said California has “the strongest gun safety laws in the nation,” but argued parts of the system still need tightening to curb trafficking. Speer introduced SB 15 as a targeted approach to identify and increase oversight of firearm dealers whose sales are disproportionately traced to crimes. The bill would require the Department of Justice to inspect the 10 dealer locations with the highest percentage of sales recovered in crimes, require dealers to maintain inventory records and annually certify their accuracy, and clarify the DOJ's authority to remove a dealer from the state's centralized dealer list for up to two years. Supporters included Ethan Murray of Giffords, who described examples of dealers with dozens of traced crime guns and urged the committee to approve SB 15. Opponents — including Sam Paredes of Gun Owners of California and Keeley Hopkins of the National Rifle Association — said federal and state law already require recordkeeping and inspections and warned the bill could impose excessive fines or penalties on well-intentioned dealers. Committee discussion focused on whether SB 15 duplicates existing tools and on the proposal’s targeted, percentage-based selection of dealers rather than raw counts. The committee voted to pass SB 15 out of the committee and refer it to the Rules Committee; several members recorded aye votes during the roll call.

Senate bill 6 (Ashby) — xylazine scheduling Sen. Ashby presented SB 6 to add xylazine to California’s schedule III controlled substances, a change intended to reduce unlawful diversion and illicit use while preserving veterinary access for large animals. Ashby described xylazine as “commonly referred to as tranq or the zombie drug” and noted it is often…