As gun violence surges nationwide, California has launched a new campaign focused on protection orders.
Although California is the state with the strongest gun safety laws in the country, a recent survey shows that 80 percent of Californians are concerned about how little they know about protection orders — which can temporarily remove firearms if a court finds evidence of dangerous or violent conduct — and only 30 percent of Californians had heard of protection orders at all.
To close this information gap, Governor Gavin Newsom has launched the Reduce the Risk campaign through the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) to raise awareness of the state’s protection orders, warning signs of gun violence, and other legal protections.
California’s Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs) “empower law enforcement and other eligible community members to present evidence to a judge showing that another individual is on a dangerous pathway to gun violence or suicide and should, as a result, be prohibited by court order from possessing, accessing, purchasing or otherwise acquiring firearms related items for a temporary period,” explained Ari Freilich, director of the California Office of Gun Violence Prevention at the U.S. Department of Justice, at a Wednesday, July 30 American Community Media briefing.
Evidence of dangerousness may include “a manifesto, journal writings, social media posts or other warning signs that an individual has persistent, intrusive thoughts about committing mass violence, even if they haven’t committed a crime yet … or directed threats against any specific victim,” he continued.
Nationwide, firearms are the leading cause of death for youth under 18. California has one of the lowest gun death rates nationwide, but the toll remains high, with roughly 3,200 Californians losing their lives annually.
If the gun death rate across the rest of the U.S. matched California’s over the past decade, there would have been nearly 140,000 lives saved and potentially hundreds of thousands fewer gunshot injuries.
GVROs prevent gun violence committed by people who fall “into this perfect gap between what the mental health system can do and what the criminal justice system can do, and it’s the same gap that the Parkland shooter fell into. He was on people’s radar, but at that point, he was still allowed to have firearms,” said Dr. Amy Barnhorst, associate director at the Centers for Violence Prevention, psychiatry professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, and an emergency and inpatient psychiatrist.
Of the 58 mass shooting-specific GVROs out of a total of over 200 GVROs filed in California between 2016 and 2018, none of those mass shootings occurred.
Sergeant Kyle Ikeuchi of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office recounted a similar incident where a 15-year-old boy “starts posting on social media that he was going to come to school with a sawed-off shotgun and that people better be ready. He sent his friend a private message saying ‘Don’t come to school the next day. If you do, the bathroom will be safe.”
After a mother who saw the message called the sheriff’s office, Sacramento law enforcement filed a GVRO and house search warrant for the student’s parents, as the student, being a minor, couldn’t legally own guns.
A sawed-off shotgun was found in the bedroom of the suspect’s brother, a 17-year-old on an unrelated probation. The 15-year-old was taken on a 5150 hold, meaning he was placed on a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold. Sergeant Ikeuchi explained that the department keeps close tabs on kids and families like the 15-year-old. “We obviously keep close tabs on this youth who is now an adult. We makse sure that he’s still doing things productively in society.”
Californians can learn more about GVROs and other gun safety resources at reducetherisk.ca.gov, a hub available in 14 languages.