A new California law scheduled to take effect Friday will allow the police to seize private, legally-owned weapons for up to three weeks without charges or allowing the citizen to contest the seizure.
AB1014 was passed last
year in the wake of 2014’s Isla Vista shooting, where teenager Elliot Rodger
went on a rampage near the campus of the University of California, Santa
Barbara, killing six people along with himself.
Rodger’s parents had
reported him to the police prior to the shooting, concerned about his mental
health and rants he posted online. But after meeting with Rodger, police
decided he wasn’t a criminal risk, and consequently didn’t search his
apartment, where he was stockpiling weapons and ammunition.
The new law is intended
to stop such a situation from re-occurring. Under the law, a judge has the
power to grant a restraining order telling police to seize a person’s guns,
based solely on accounts from family members or police that the person is poses
an imminent danger to others. The restraining order can be granted without the
affected person knowing it exists or being allowed time to contest it.
Under the law, the
factors a judge can consider in granting the restraining order include not only
threats of violence, but also prior felony arrests (even without a conviction),
evidence of alcohol abuse, and even the simple act of recently purchasing a gun
or ammunition.
Once granted, police can
use the restraining order to confiscate all of a person’s guns and ammunition,
and the person is also barred from buying or possessing guns and ammo for the
duration of the order. A full court hearing must then be heard within three
weeks. At that hearing, a judge will be able to extend the restraining order
for an entire year.
“The law gives us a
vehicle to cause the person to surrender their weapons, to have a time out, if
you will,” Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Michael Moore told
Southern California Public Radio. “It allows further examination of the
person’s mental state.”
Comments
I can
hardly wait to read what “mental state” those California voters are in. Will bear traps and wolf and mountain lion
traps be banned too ? Will sanctuary
cities protect Mexican Drug gangs from having their guns taken ?
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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