SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a law that will make the state the first to allow employers, co-workers and teachers to seek gun violence restraining orders against other people.
The bill was vetoed twice by former governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and goes beyond a measure that he signed allowing only law enforcement officers and immediate family members to ask judges to temporarily take away peoples’ guns when they are deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have laws similar to California’s current law but the new law that takes effect on Jan. 1 will be broader.
“With school and workplace shootings on the rise, it’s common sense to give the people we see every day the power to intervene and prevent tragedies,” said the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco.
Newsom is also a Democrat and signed a companion bill allowing the gun violence restraining orders to last one and five years, although the gun owners could petition to end those restrictions earlier.
Hawaii allows the restraining order petitions by medical professionals, co-workers, and educators but not employers, Ting’s office said. It cited information from the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
Maryland allows the restraining order petitions by health care providers and Washington, D.C., allows mental health providers to petition, while New York allows them from school administrators.
The California law will require co-workers requesting the orders to have “substantial and regular interactions” with gun owners to seek the orders and co-workers and school employees must get approval from their employers or school administrators before seeking them. People seeking the orders will have to file sworn statements specifying their reasons for doing so.
The measure was opposed by gun owners’ rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said the bill “poses a significant threat to civil liberties” because orders can be sought before gun owners have an opportunity to contest the requests.
Those allowed to request orders under the new law may “lack the relationship or skills required to make an appropriate assessment,” the ACLU said.
