BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2607 (Ting) - Firearm restraining orders
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|Version: March 17, 2016 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 5 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: June 20, 2016 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 2607 would expand the population of individuals
eligible to petition the court for a gun violence restraining
order (GVRO), as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
GVRO petitions : Potentially significant increase in court
costs (General Fund*) to the extent expanding the population
of individuals eligible to petition the court for a GVRO
results in additional petitions filed, subsequently prompting
new hearings and the issuance of warrants and GVROs. Actual
costs would be dependent of the volume of petitions filed by
the expanded population. The number of additional petitions
filed cannot be known with certainty, but to the extent even
one or two petitions are filed in each county per year,
estimated costs to the courts could be in the low hundreds of
thousands of dollars annually statewide.
APPS enforcement/administration : Potential increase in
costs (Special Fund**) to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for
administration and enforcement of the Armed Prohibited
AB 2607 (Ting) Page 1 of
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Persons System (APPS) list to the extent expanding the
population of individuals eligible to petition for GVROs
increases workload to monitor changes to the APPS list based
on new GVROs issued, renewed, dissolved, or terminated.
Misdemeanor violations : Potential non-reimbursable local
enforcement and incarceration costs (Local Funds) offset to a
degree by fine revenue for (1) violations of GVROs, (2)
violations of the subsequent five-year firearms/ammunition
prohibition due to violating a GVRO, and (3) filing GVRO
petitions with false information or with the intent to
harass.
Mandated law enforcement activities : Potential increase in
local law enforcement agency costs, potentially
state-reimbursable (General Fund) to retain surrendered
firearms and ammunition during the restraining order period,
issue a receipt to the restrained person at the time of
surrender, and serve ex parte restraining orders.
*Trial Court Trust Fund
**Dealers Record of Sale (DROS) Account - Staff notes the DROS
Account is structurally imbalanced, with an estimated reserve
balance of less than $1 million by year-end FY 2016-17. Current
revenues to the DROS Account may be insufficient to cover the
additional costs resulting from this bill in conjunction with
the numerous other legislative measures requiring funding from
the DROS Account, should they be enacted.
Background: Existing law authorizes a court to issue an ex parte gun
violence restraining order (GVRO) prohibiting the subject of a
petition from having in his or her custody or control, owning,
purchasing, possessing, or receiving, or attempting to purchase
or receive, a firearm or ammunition when it is shown that there
is a substantial likelihood that the subject of the petition
poses a significant danger of harm to himself, herself, or
another in the near future by having in his or her custody or
control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm,
and that the order is necessary to prevent personal injury to
himself, herself, or another, as specified. Existing law
requires the ex parte GVRO to expire no later than 21 days after
the date on the order. (Penal Code § 18150.)
Existing law additionally authorizes a court to issue a GVRO
prohibiting the subject of the petition from having in his or
AB 2607 (Ting) Page 2 of
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her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or
receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive, a firearm or
ammunition for a period of one year when there is clear and
convincing evidence that the subject of the petition, or a
person subject to an ex parte GVRO, as applicable, poses a
significant danger of personal injury to himself, herself, or
another by having in his or her custody or control, owning,
purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm, and that the
order is necessary to prevent personal injury to himself,
herself, or another, as specified. Existing law authorizes
renewal of a GVRO within three months of the order's expiration.
(Penal Code §§ 18170, 18190)
Under existing law, petitions for ex parte, one-year, and
renewed GVROs may only be filed by an immediate family member of
the person or by a law enforcement officer. (Penal Code §§
18150(a)(1), 18170(a), 18190(a)(1).)
Under existing law, the court is required to notify the DOJ when
a GVRO is issued, renewed, dissolved, or terminated. (Penal Code
§ 18115.)
Proposed Law:
This bill would expand the population of individuals (beyond
immediate family members and law enforcement officers) eligible
to petition the court for an ex parte, one-year, or renewed GVRO
to include the following persons:
An employer or coworker.
A mental health worker who has seen a person as a patient
in the prior six months.
An employee of a secondary or postsecondary school that a
person has attended in the last six months.
This bill would provide that nothing in the GVRO statutes shall
be construed to require a person eligible to petition the court
for a GVRO to seek a GVRO.
Prior
Legislation: AB 1014 (Skinner) Chapter 872/2014 established the
GVRO process, which authorizes a law enforcement officer or
immediate family member of a person, to seek, and a court to
issue, a GVRO, as specified, prohibiting a person from having in
AB 2607 (Ting) Page 3 of
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his or her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing,
or receiving any firearms or ammunition, as specified.
Staff
Comments: By expanding the population of individuals eligible to
petition the court for a GVRO, this bill could result in
increased costs to the courts to process and review a greater
number of petitions, provide notice, conduct hearings, and
issue, renew, dissolve, or terminate GVROs. Data from the DOJ
indicates less than 40 GVROs have been issued since the
inception of the GVRO process on January 1, 2016, however, data
on the number of petitions filed and hearings held was not
available at the time of this analysis.
While it is unknown how many petitions will be filed by the
expanded population, the potential workload to hold hearings,
issue warrants and GVROs could result in significant additional
workload to the courts. The number of additional petitions that
will be filed cannot be known with certainty, but to the extent
even one or two petitions are filed in each county per year,
estimated costs to the courts could be in the low hundreds of
thousands of dollars annually statewide based on the hourly
court cost of $837.
The DOJ could incur additional costs to facilitate the process
of submittal, recording, and tracking of GVRO status, resulting
in an increase in APPS enforcement costs. These costs would
likewise be dependent on the volume of GVROs issued as a result
of the revised and expanded population of individuals eligible
to file GVRO petitions.
Under existing law, any person filing a petition for a GVRO
knowing the information in the petition to be false or with the
intent to harass is guilty of a misdemeanor. Additionally,
violations of GVROs are punishable as a misdemeanor and subject
the individual restricted by the GVRO to a five-year prohibition
from the possession or purchase of firearms or ammunition.
Misdemeanor violations of this measure could result in
non-reimbursable local law enforcement agency costs for
enforcement and incarceration, offset to a degree by fine
revenue.
Under existing law, local law enforcement officers are required
to serve ex parte restraining orders that have been requested by
AB 2607 (Ting) Page 4 of
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family members, retain surrendered firearms and ammunition
during the restraining order periods, and issue receipts for the
firearms/ammunition surrendered to restrained persons. By
expanding the population of individuals eligible to request ex
parte GVROs, this bill could likewise increase potentially
state-reimbursable local law enforcement agency costs for these
activities, the magnitude of which would be dependent on the
number of GVROs required to be served, the volume of firearms
and ammunition to be retained and the length of time required
for storage, and workload/time involved with providing receipts
to the restrained persons.
To the extent the provisions of this bill serve to reduce the
incidence of firearms-related injuries and death, potential
future cost savings could be substantial. A study by the
non-profit Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE)
reported over 105,000 incidences of firearm injury and death in
2010 nationally, with an estimated societal cost of over $174
billion in work lost, medical care, insurance, criminal justice
expenses, and pain and suffering. At a unit level, the study
reported a governmental cost of $187,000 to $582,000 per firearm
fatality in medical and mental health care, emergency services,
and administrative and criminal justice costs. The estimated
societal cost per firearm injury or fatality, including lost
work productivity and quality of life was reported at nearly
$430,000 to $5 million, respectively.
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