SACRAMENTO (AP) — California could become the first state to allow family members, licensed therapists and health care providers to petition a judge to take firearms from someone who has shown signs that they could harm others or themselves.
California’s bill, AB1014, was prompted by an attack in May that left six people, including the student attacker, dead in Isla Vista, near the University of California, Santa Barbara. It will be heard Monday in a Senate committee as state lawmakers return from a monthlong summer recess.
Long before Elliot Rodger went on his violent rampage, his parents were worried about the mental state of their 22-year-old son. In April, their concern grew so strong that they had his therapist contact Santa Barbara County mental health officials.
Sheriff’s deputies talked to him and decided he was not a threat to himself or others. They weren’t required to investigate further and didn’t. Had they searched his room, they might have found guns that police said he used on May 23 to fatally shoot three people after stabbing to death three others.
He killed himself while being pursued by police.
Connecticut, Indiana and Texas already have laws that let law enforcement seek to seize guns from people they deem to be a danger.
In California, legally purchased guns can only be seized by authorities from people convicted of a felony or a violent misdemeanor; people subject to a domestic violence restraining order; or those who are determined to be mentally unstable.
“We know many cases of suicide or violence against others where the family member was the first to see the warning signals, the danger signs, and yet they were really somewhat helpless to do anything about it,” said Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who proposed the bill with Assemblyman Das Williams and Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, two Democrats from Santa Barbara.
The bill is among hundreds of measures lined up for legislators to consider before their Aug. 31 deadline to pass bills. They also will consider putting bond measures on the November ballot to support schools and the state’s water infrastructure; whether to ban disposable plastic bags and plastic microbeads in soaps and cosmetics; expanding aerospace tax credits to build the next generation of stealth bombers in California; and perhaps legalizing online poker.
California eyes first-in-nation firearms restraint