California Announces New Details on Efforts to Promote Nation-Leading Red Flag Laws

Photo by Chip Vincent from Unsplash

SACRAMENTO – In the wake of recent mass shootings across the nation, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services or Cal OES announced $11 million in new community partnerships to expand outreach and education on the use of Gun Violence Restraining Orders – or “red flag laws” – to families, schools and communities most at risk for gun violence.

This 18-month campaign now includes recognized leaders in the gun violence prevention community movement:

$5 million to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence in grants to local community-based domestic violence groups for community outreach.
$5 million to Hope and Heal Fund for statewide outreach to communities most at risk of gun violence including education efforts, research and multilingual outreach.
$1 million to the San Diego City Attorney’s Office for education and training for city attorney offices and law enforcement groups.

Each of these offices will work in tandem to ensure loved ones, teachers, or law enforcement know how to intervene and prevent someone in crisis from accessing firearms.

In the first three years of California’s GVRO law, officials used it to remove guns from 58 people who threatened to commit mass shootings, according to a study recently released by the Violence Prevention Research Program.

From 2016 to 2020, California courts issued 3,007 Gun Violence Restraining Orders. In 2020, the state issued 1,284 GVROs, 15-times greater than the 85 issued in 2016. That same year, California’s firearm death rate was 8.5 per 100,000 — the seventh-lowest in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This law demonstrates the enormous potential to save lives to reduce violence and death by firearms by helping to de-escalate emergency situations. California was the first state in the country to pass legislation that gives family members the option to petition a court for this order.

“Two-thirds of Californians still don’t know about this law, so It is imperative to step up efforts to fully implement this law that has enormous potential to decrease firearm suicides and mass shootings,” said Brian Malte, Executive Director of the Hope and Heal Fund. This law is a critical tool in the toolbelt that gives family members a way to ensure their loved ones don’t harm themselves or others.”