California spending big to promote `red flag' law
Amid a slew of recent deadly mass shootings across the country — from Buffalo to Oklahoma to Texas — California is putting $11 million of the funding it allocated to build awareness of it's “red flag” law, which allows families, employers, educators and police obtain restraining orders to confiscate weapons if there are indications someone is posing a threat, to use.
The state already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. The red flag law, implemented after a mass shooting that left six people dead and 14 others injured in Isla Vista in 2014, allows people to report what they see as a threat of gun violence at their school, workplace or elsewhere, and file gun restraining orders that temporarily ban people from possessing a gun if they are a deemed a threat to themselves or others.
“Red flag laws are proven to be effective in reducing violence and death by guns,” says a news release from the governor's office. “These laws can help de-escalate emergency situations. California is one of several states around the country that is increasingly emphasizing red flag laws as a commonsense way to help reduce gun violence.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 10 announced the launch of further initiatives that will be administered through the Governor's Office of Emergency Services to increase awareness of the law. These include:
• Allocating $5 million on a statewide education program including research and multilingual outreach, with an emphasis on at-risk communities
• Spending $5 million to local domestic violence groups for community outreach.
• Allocating $1 million to provide education and training for statewide district attorneys and law enforcement groups through an existing San Diego-based program.
Officials say the state has “issued 3,007 Gun Violence Restraining Orders from 2016 to 2020,” according to the governor's office press release. “In 2020, the state issued 1,284 restraining orders, 15 times greater than the 85 issued in 2016.”
In a separate news release on Thursday, the governor applauded President Joe Biden's address to the nation last week calling for a ban on assault weapons to curb gun violence.
Newsom put out his own call for Congress to “act urgently to reduce gun violence in America,” and “pass California-tested, Californiaproven gun safety laws.”
“America has a gun problem,' the governor said in a press statement. “Our country's addiction to guns and gun culture is killing our kids, our teachers, our family and our friends. I want to thank President Biden for his steadfast commitment to getting more guns off our streets and I join him in urging Congress to act. Common sense gun laws work. In California, we prove that every single day.”