Image by Jason Gillman from Pixabay 

August 6, 2024 - SAN DIEGO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, and San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl in announcing the establishment of the San Diego Gun Violence Prevention Program Task Force. This program is supported by grants from DOJ and the Judicial Council of California focused on ensuring court protection orders such as Gun Violence Restraining Orders and Domestic Violence Restraining Orders are effectively utilized, implemented, and enforced to protect survivors and prevent gun violence. 

“I commend the leaders of San Diego for establishing this groundbreaking program and task force,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “California has led the nation by providing multiple protection order options to protect survivors and disarm individuals perpetrating violence and abuse. These interventions are all vital to preventing gun violence and can serve as a model for other states. We have a robust gun-safety toolkit. San Diego is leading the way in utilizing that safety toolkit to proactively prevent violence, obtain protection orders, and ensure that people subject to these orders are quickly and safely disarmed. These efforts are vital and DOJ is proud to help support, implement, and fund them.” 

“We want the people of California and the nation to know that the evidence is in on gun violence restraining orders,” said City Attorney Mara Elliot. “They work. They save lives, and as you can see from the representation here today, you can have confidence that your request for help obtaining a GVRO will be handled appropriately, professionally, and quickly.” 

San Diego’s program will expand regional partnerships to: (1) identify individuals who are a danger to themselves or others, (2) support survivors, law enforcement, and other stakeholders in obtaining protection orders that include firearm restrictions to disarm people who are a danger, (3) ensure people subject to those orders receive consistent information about how to comply with these orders by safely relinquishing firearms to gun dealers or law enforcement, and (4) ensure that courts, law enforcement, and other stakeholders promptly identify and disarm individuals who remain unlawfully armed. DOJ has identified these efforts as a top gun violence prevention priority, advocated for legislation to fund these activities, and encourages other communities to implement similar programs focused on effective use and implementation of protection orders to prevent gun violence.

In June 2024, Attorney General Bonta’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention (OGVP) issued a report on California’s nine court protection orders to prevent gun violence. All of these processes empower people to present evidence to a judge showing that they need court-ordered safety protections for themselves and/or other people who may be in danger. If a court finds sufficient evidence, the court may issue a protection order that requires an individual subject to the order to comply with a set of safety rules designed to protect vulnerable people and the public from violence, abuse, and other harms. These safety rules have the force of law and in California, typically include firearm provisions that prohibit people found to have engaged in violent and abusive conduct from keeping or acquiring firearms and other weapons while the protection order is in effect against them.

That OGVP report also called for communities to take coordinated action to implement and enforce protection orders to prevent gun violence. Courts and law enforcement must also proactively coordinate to ensure that people who become prohibited from keeping firearms under a protection order are separated from their weapons as soon as possible. The individuals who violate the court order and state law by failing to provide proof of firearm relinquishment should be promptly identified and disarmed which promotes more prompt, safe, and consistent service, implementation, and enforcement of protection orders remains a top gun violence prevention priority for DOJ and policymakers in California.

DOJ’s 2024 Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS) report similarly called for communities to develop a county-level firearm relinquishment system with designated personnel responsible for coordinating firearm relinquishment efforts and promoting more consistent service and enforcement of firearm-prohibiting restraining orders and other court orders. The best time to remove a firearm from a prohibited person is at or near the time they become prohibited, such as when a local law enforcement official serving a restraining order takes possession of any firearms simultaneously. Not only does this increase public safety, it avoids the need for DOJ to conduct a potentially more costly APPS investigation. Individuals only enter the APPS system when a person becomes prohibited from owning firearms and the firearm is not immediately relinquished. While the APPS system remains an essential safety net, the best gun violence reduction strategy requires robust efforts to remove firearms from prohibited individuals before they become APPS cases.

In California, the nine protection order options available to disarm a violent, abusive, or dangerous individual are:

• Gun Violence Restraining Orders: For law enforcement, family members, intimate partners, employers, and other eligible petitioners seeking court orders to suspend a person’s legal access to firearms and other weapons because they are a significant danger to themselves or others. 
• Domestic Violence Restraining Orders: For survivors of violence, threats, and other abusive and harmful conduct who need protection from a current or former intimate partner, close family member, or household member.
• Elder or Dependent Adult Abuse Restraining Orders: For survivors of violence, threats, and other abusive and harmful conduct who are at least 65 years old, or have certain mental or physical limitations, and who need protection from someone who harmed or abused them. Certain other people can also petition courts for these orders to protect an abused elder or dependent adult, such as conservators, guardians, or county protective service agencies.
• Civil Harassment Restraining Orders: For survivors of violence, threats, and other abusive and harmful conduct who need protection from any person.
• Workplace Violence Restraining Orders: For employers seeking protection for one or more employee from someone who has been violent or made threats of violence connected to the workplace. Starting in 2025, collective bargaining representatives may also request Workplace Violence Restraining Orders to protect the employees they represent.
• Postsecondary School Violence Restraining Orders: For school administrative or safety officials at private postsecondary educational institutions seeking protection for one or more adult student from someone who has been violent or made threats of violence connected to the school campus or facilities. 
• Juvenile Restraining Orders: For people seeking protection for or from a young person who is under juvenile court jurisdiction in a dependency or juvenile justice case.
• Emergency Protective Orders: For law enforcement seeking immediate and very short-term protection for survivors in emergency cases involving an immediate and present danger of domestic violence, child abuse, child abduction, elder or dependent adult abuse, or threatening conduct defined as stalking.
• Criminal Protective Orders: For courts hearing a criminal case to protect victims or witnesses to a crime during the criminal case or as a condition of probation or conviction, often in cases involving domestic violence. These orders may be issued at the request of district attorneys, crime victims and witnesses, and by the court acting on its own motion. 

Highlights from the data report, which can be found here, include:

• Statewide, the number of California protection orders issued with provisions limiting a respondent’s access to firearms and other weapons increased by 20% between 2020 and 2023.
• More survivors are obtaining longer-term final protection orders that can last for multiple years instead of days or weeks: The number of final protection orders issued with firearm provisions by California civil courts increased by 25% from 2020 to 2023.
• There have been especially significant increases in utilization of the Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO). The number of GVROs issued per year in California more than doubled from 2020 to 2023 (increasing by 118%) and nearly doubled from 2021 to 2023 (increasing by 96%). This underscores the impact of recent state and local investments focused on training and educating stakeholders about this process.
• There is significant variation in utilization of GVRO across California’s counties. Of the 8,988 GVROs issued statewide from 2016 to 2023, 44% were issued in just two of California’s 58 counties, San Diego and Santa Clara. Of the 2,071 longer-term final GVROs issued statewide from 2016-2023, 35% were issued in San Diego County alone. 
• Criminal Protective Orders, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, Emergency Protective Orders, and Civil Harassment Restraining Orders are by far the most common types of protection orders issued with firearm provisions in California. While GVRO play an essential role in preventing gun violence, 99% of all protection orders issued with firearm provisions in 2023 were orders other than GVROs. 

California DOJ’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention was launched by Attorney General Bonta in 2022. The office, dedicated to developing strategies and working with stakeholders statewide to address the gun violence epidemic, is the first in the nation established within an attorney general’s office. Last year, the office published two other data and policy reports on The Impact of Gun Violence in California and the intersection of Domestic Violence and Firearms.
Source: CA. DOJ