California Attorney General Rob Bonta Tuesday joined San Diego leaders to announce the Gun Violence Prevention Program Task Force, intended to ensure court protection orders are effectively implemented and enforced.
San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl spoke Tuesday with Bonta to make sure court orders such as gun violence restraining orders and domestic violence restraining orders will be properly enforced by the task force.
"I commend the leaders of San Diego for establishing this groundbreaking program and task force," Bonta said. "California has led the nation by providing multiple protection order options to protect survivors and disarm individuals perpetrating violence and abuse. These interventions are all vital to preventing gun violence and can serve as a model for other states.
"We have a robust gun-safety toolkit. San Diego is leading the way in utilizing that safety toolkit to proactively prevent violence, obtain protection orders, and ensure that people subject to these orders are quickly and safely disarmed," he said.
Specifically, San Diego's program is intended to "expand regional partnerships" to:
— Identify individuals who are a danger to themselves or others;
— Support survivors, law enforcement and other stakeholders in obtaining protection orders that include firearm restrictions to disarm people who are a danger;
— Ensure people subject to those orders receive consistent information about how to comply with these orders by safely relinquishing firearms to gun dealers or law enforcement; and
— Ensure that courts, law enforcement, and other stakeholders promptly identify and disarm individuals who remain unlawfully armed.
"We want the people of California and the nation to know that the evidence is in on gun violence restraining orders," Elliott said. "They work. They save lives, and as you can see from the representation here today, you can have confidence that your request for help obtaining a GVRO will be handled appropriately, professionally, and quickly."
In June, Bonta's Office of Gun Violence Prevention issued a report on California's nine court protection orders to prevent gun violence. That report called for communities to take "coordinated action to implement and enforce protection orders to prevent gun violence," a statement from Bonta's office read.
