AB 2917: Firearms: restraining orders.

Existing law authorizes a court to issue a gun violence restraining order to prohibit a person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or ammunition for a period of one to 5 years, subject to renewal for additional one- to 5-year periods, if the subject of the petition poses a significant danger of self-harm or harm to another in the near future by having a firearm and the order is necessary to prevent personal injury to the subject of the petition or another. Existing law requires the court, in determining whether grounds for a gun violence restraining order exist, to consider evidence of, among other things, a recent threat of violence or act of violence by the subject directed toward another and a past history of those threats or acts within the last 12 months. Existing law also authorizes a court to consider the unlawful and reckless use, display, or brandishing of a firearm by the subject of the petition.

This bill would require the court to additionally consider a recent threat of violence or act of violence directed toward another group or location, or a past history of those threats or acts. The bill would authorize the court to consider, among other things, the unlawful and reckless use, display, or brandishing of a firearm indicating an increased risk for violence or actual threat of violence by the subject of the petition, evidence of stalking, evidence of cruelty to animals, or evidence of the respondents threats of violence to advance a political objective. The bill would also authorize the court to consider violations of comparable firearm-prohibiting protective orders issued by out-of-state courts. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain state summary criminal history information, as defined, and to furnish this information to specified entities, including city attorneys pursuing civil gang injunctions or drug abatement actions. Existing law requires a local criminal justice agency to furnish local summary criminal history information to specified entities, including city attorneys pursuing civil gang injunctions or drug abatement actions. Under existing law, the disclosure of state summary criminal history information to an unauthorized person is a crime. Existing law defines criminal justice agencies as agencies that perform activities that relate to the apprehension, prosecution, adjudication, incarceration, or correction of criminal offenders, including city attorneys pursuing civil gang injunctions or drug abatement actions. Under existing law, a criminal justice agency, among other things, compiles records and data for the purpose of identifying criminal offenders and maintaining specified information pertaining to each offender, including a summary of arrests and pretrial proceedings.

This bill would include city attorneys and county counsel pursuing gun violence restraining orders in those provisions. By expanding the scope of the crime of unlawful disclosure of state summary criminal history information, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.