BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session AB 2607 (Ting) - Firearm restraining orders ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: March 17, 2016 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 5 - 2 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: No | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: June 20, 2016 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ? 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 ? 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 ? 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 ? 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. -- END --