{"id":74588,"date":"2025-08-05T10:33:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=74588"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:33:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:33:44","slug":"california-launches-campaign-to-fight-gun-violence-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=74588","title":{"rendered":"California Launches Campaign to Fight Gun Violence Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As gun violence surges nationwide, California has launched a new campaign focused on protection orders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As gun violence surges nationwide, California has launched a new campaign focused on protection orders.<\/p>\n

Although California is the state with the strongest gun safety laws in the country, a\u00a0recent survey<\/a>\u00a0shows that 80% of Californians are concerned about how little they know about protection orders \u2014 which can temporarily remove firearms if a court finds evidence of dangerous or violent conduct \u2014 and only 30% of Californians had heard of protection orders at all.<\/p>\n

To close this information gap, Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a\u00a0Reduce the Risk<\/a>\u00a0campaign through the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) to raise awareness of the state\u2019s protection orders, gun violence warning signs and other legal protections.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs) \u201cempower 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,\u201d explained Ari Freilich, director of the\u00a0California Office of Gun Violence Prevention<\/a>\u00a0at the U.S. Department of Justice, at a Wednesday, July 30 American Community Media briefing.<\/p>\n

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Evidence of dangerousness may include \u201ca 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\u2019t committed a crime yet \u2026 or directed threats against any specific victim,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, firearms are the leading cause of death for youth under 18.<\/p>\n

California has one of the\u00a0lowest<\/a>\u00a0gun deaths nationwide, but the toll remains high, with roughly 3,200 Californians losing their lives annually.<\/p>\n

If the gun death rate across the rest of the U.S. matched California\u2019s over the past decade, there would have been nearly\u00a0140,000 lives saved<\/a>\u00a0and potentially hundreds of thousands fewer gunshot injuries.<\/p>\n

Since California\u2019s GVRO law took effect in 2016, it has become a model for similar risk protection order laws adopted in 19 other states and Washington, D.C., usually in response to a mass shooting where law enforcement knew the perpetrator but couldn\u2019t legally, effectively disarm them in advance.<\/p>\n

Filling the gap between mental health and criminal justice<\/h2>\n

GVROs prevent gun violence committed by people who fall \u201cinto this perfect gap between what the mental health system can do and what the criminal justice system can do, and it\u2019s exactly the same gap that the Parkland shooter fell into. He was on people\u2019s radar, but at that point, he was still allowed to have firearms,\u201d said Dr. Amy Barnhorst, associate director at the\u00a0Centers for Violence Prevention<\/a>, psychiatry professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, and an emergency and inpatient psychiatrist.<\/p>\n

About\u00a01.6%<\/a>\u00a0of people nationwide who attempt to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer fail a background check.<\/p>\n

In 2017, a year before the Parkland shooting and a year after Barnhorst helped craft California\u2019s GVRO legislation, she was working in a mental health crisis unit in Sacramento County when FBI agents and local law enforcement brought in a community college student.<\/p>\n

The student \u201chad told a few close friends not to come to school on a certain date. He made allusions to having a kill list and he was posting pictures on social media of himself in military gear, holding guns,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey said there\u2019s no evidence that he\u2019s committed a crime \u2026 and you can\u2019t keep people in a psychiatric hospital just because they\u2019re dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a lot of violent fantasies, but I didn\u2019t really see a treatable mental illness. I wasn\u2019t sure that any length of stay in the psychiatric hospital was going to make him less violent \u2026 but I was really afraid for him and his classmates and his family,\u201d she continued, adding that she filed a GVRO against him under threat of a mass shooting.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Kyle Ikeuchi of the Sacramento Sheriff\u2019s Office recounted a similar incident where a 15 year old boy \u201cstarts posting on social media that he was going to come to school with a sawed-off shotgun and that people better be ready. He actually sent his friend a private message saying \u2018Don\u2019t come to school the next day. If you do, the bathroom will be safe.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After a mother who saw the message called the sheriff\u2019s office, Sacramento law enforcement filed a GVRO and house search warrant for the student\u2019s parents, as the student, being a minor, already couldn\u2019t legally own guns.<\/p>\n

A sawed-off shotgun was found in the bedroom of the suspect\u2019s brother, a 17 year old on an unrelated probation. The 15-year-old was taken on a 5150 hold.<\/p>\n

He then told the deputy transporting him \u201c\u2018I keep having the same dream again and again that I shoot my best friend in the chest at point blank with the sawed-off shotgun tomorrow during second period,\u2019\u201d Ikeuchi explained. \u201cVery concerning statements. So we obviously keep close tabs on this youth who is now an adult. We make sure that he\u2019s still doing things productive in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gun violence often involves other forms of violence, added Gabriella Gonzales, a 23-year-old\u00a0Reduce the Risk<\/a>\u00a0youth advisory councilmember: \u201cWhen I was 17, I met a guy who lived near my house. He eventually asked to have sex with me many times. When I kept saying no, he escalated and threatened to shoot me if I did not comply.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted me to meet him at the park by my house so that he could shoot me. He was very mocking, and would say \u2018I can\u2019t wait to see you start trying to run away because you\u2019re fat,’\u201d she continued. \u201cI stopped responding, but he would send pictures and videos of his guns threatening to come find me and shoot me for not complying to his sexual advances. He would also send videos of him and his friends in the car driving through the neighborhoods near my house, trying to find me, and it was visible that there were guns in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea that there were protection orders for this. I really do wish I knew,\u201d Gonzales added. \u201cA couple months later after this experience, the same guy got arrested for threatening to shoot up my school. He had threatened someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filing a GVRO<\/h2>\n

In 2018, 424 GVROs were filed in California. In 2023, filings increased 528% to 2,073.<\/p>\n

A standard GVRO is open to both law enforcement and people with a qualifying relationship with the person they\u2019re concerned about \u2014 including family members, household members, co-workers and employers, school officials and intimate partners.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement responding to a violent emergency can alternatively file for an emergency GVRO over the phone, which remains in effect for 5 to 21 days and requests a civil court hearing by then for a longer-term GVRO for up to five years.<\/p>\n

The petitioner then submits a form to their local Superior Court in-person or online, providing evidence of dangerousness, whether or not that alleged person already owns firearms; a temporary GVRO is then issued within one day in effect for up to 21 days before the full court hearing.<\/p>\n

Californians can learn more about GVROs and other gun safety resources at\u00a0reducetherisk.ca.gov<\/a>, a hub available in 14 languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data shows that protection orders like Gun Violence Restraining Orders do work,\u201d said CalOES Senior Public Information Officer Chris Dargan. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to build on that momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Aug 1, 2025 As...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74589,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74588\/revisions\/74589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}