California Governor Jerry Brown has a bill on his desk that could make California the first state to allow family members the right to request a gun restraining order. Democratic Assemblywomen Nancy Skinner’s bill would extend authority to family members to request restraining orders on individuals who are deemed at risk for violent behavior with a firearm.
Skinner introduced Assembly Bill 1014 after the mass shooting in Isle Vista near the University of California, Santa Barbara. The troubled 22-year-old man killed six UCSB students and injured 13 other people on May 23, 2014. (RELATED: Sheriff: Elliot Rodger Stabbed 3, Shot 3 To Death In Murder Spree)
If Brown signs the bill it would make California the first state to allow a family member to go directly to a judge and request a restraining order that would temporarily prohibit an individual’s ability to possess a gun.
California’s bill AB1014 states, “An immediate family member of a person or a law enforcement officer may request that a court, after notice and a hearing, issue a gun violence restraining order enjoining the subject of the petition from having in his or her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm or ammunition for a period of one year.”
Only law enforcement officers in Connecticut, Indiana and Texas can seek a judge’s order allowing them to seize guns from people they deem to be a danger.
Gun-rights groups are urging Brown to veto Skinner’s bill, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Eric Wooten, president of the Liberal Gun Owners Association, urges Brown to veto the bill. “This unconstitutional, unaffordable, unproven and unworkable bill could cause the very tragedies it is meant to prevent,” Wooten said.
Tuesday is the deadline for Brown to make a decision on the last of the 768 bills approved during the final weeks of the legislative session. Brown has made no notion to which way he will vote on the bill.
Brown recently signed into law the nation’s first “yes means yes” law. The law requires all universities that receive state financial aid to adopt a definition of sexual assault. (RELATED: California Enacts Nation’s First ‘Yes Means Yes’ Law)