A recently published report looking at the use of gun violence restraining orders in California credits San Diego with driving their increased use, particularly in southern California.
The Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis reviewed use of “extreme risk protection orders” in the state between 2016 and 2019.
The most marked increase in use of gun violence restraining orders was in San Diego County, according to the study, published last month in Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study authors noted that San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott’s endorsement of using such orders “may help explain the disproportionate increase in use in San Diego, suggesting that local leadership may play a role in local policy use.”
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San Diego has started training law enforcement officers in other counties about use of such restraining orders, and that, the study found, “may to some extent account for the disproportionate use” of the orders in southern California when compared to the rest of the state.
Elliott, who has embraced the use of the orders, issued a statement that it is “encouraging to see our impact on California’s use of this indispensable tool to prevent suicides, mass shootings, intimate partner homicides, and other gun-related violence.”
“Red-flag laws allow us to be proactive in identifying dangerous behavior so that we can avert a tragedy before it occurs, and I’m hopeful GVRO use will continue to rapidly grow,” Elliott said.
The study noted that a look at a subset of 21 California cases from 2019 found that such red-flag laws may help prevent mass shootings. In fact, the law that allows for gun violence restraining orders was prompted by a 2014 mass shooting in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara.
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In January 2016, state law changed to allow family members, roommates and law enforcement officers to ask a court to remove access to firearms and ammunition for people who pose significant danger to themselves or others. Gun owners must surrender or sell their weapons, and are barred from having guns or ammunition for a year.
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office obtained its first gun violence straining order on Jan. 3, 2018, not long after Elliott was sworn in. Since then, orders obtained by the City Attorney’s Office resulted in the removal of some 600 guns — including 50 assault-style rifles — from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Statewide, the UC Davis study found, use of the order has grown tenfold, from 70 obtained in 2016, to 700 obtained last year. Of those 700, more than 38 percent of them — 269 orders — were obtained in San Diego County.
The study also provided a glimpse into the demographics of the 1,076 people targeted by the order across California. Most were men, and nearly six out of 10 were white.
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Among the statewide findings:
- 985 — 91.5 percent — of them were men
- 637 — 59.2 percent — were white
- Ages ranged from 14 to 98 years old, with a mean age of 41.8 years
City News Service contributed to this report.
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San Diego credited with growth in statewide use of restraining orders to curb gun violence - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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