Posted on 05/28/2014 11:53:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
SANTA BARBARA (CBSLA.com) — State lawmakers are pushing for new legislation that would give family or friends of a potential gunman the ability to ask law enforcement to prevent them from owning or buying a firearm.
The proposed bill from California State Assemblymembers Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) would create a gun violence restraining order, which would grant authority to “concerned family members, friends and intimate partners” to “intervene and potentially prohibit the purchase of firearms and/or remove the firearms already in possession.”
Williams told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO law enforcement would in turn have the ability to investigate reported threats and ask a judge to grant an order prohibiting firearms purchase or possession. “Most people agree that guns shouldn’t be in the hands of mentally ill or mentally unstable folks, the question is how to remove mentally ill or unstable folks from their weapons,” said Williams. “This would at least give parents and family members, spouses, a chance to bring to a judge a case where someone might hurt themselves…or is potentially homicidal and could hurt other people.”
Under current California law, licensed therapists can notify law enforcement that their client is at risk of committing a violent act allowing authorities to investigate the individual. Law enforcement can then prevent the person from buying or owning firearms
According to Skinner, there is currently no legal mechanism to limit firearm access while an individual in crisis is seeking or receiving mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, anger management, or other counseling. Opponents say such legislation would likely be unconstitutional and target a high number of law-abiding Americans.
But Skinner said law enforcement’s response to attempts by the mother of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger regarding concerns about her son’s mental health shows new measures are needed.
“When someone is in crisis, the people closest to them are often the first to spot the warning signs but almost nothing can now be done to get back their guns or prevent them from buying more,” Skinner said. “Parents, like the mother who tried to intervene, deserve an effective tool they can act on to help prevent these tragedies.”
Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson will be joining Williams and Skinner as a principal co-author of the legislation. It was not immediately clear when the bill would be introduced.
I believe most states already have something similar to Fla’s Baker Act law on the books. It allows for people to be institutionalized against their will if they seem to be a threat to themselves or other people. His parents should have institutionalized him using California’s 5150 statute. I don’t understand why they didn’t. If a person is a threat to himself or others, he can be taken out of the population legally. That they didn’t do it, shows his parents were in denial. So now everyone wants to make a new law because they didn’t use the law on the books when they had the chance.
And take another look at the way those who were demonstrably mentally ill were handled in the past. Because turning them loose on society as pleases the ACLU is obviously not working out.
Your disgruntled liberal neighbor can already call a SWAT raid down on your @zz.
Under this proposed law your disgruntled liberal relative can secretly denounce you to the police as a menace to society, no doctor statement or court order necessary, and the po-po simply show up at your door and confiscate your firearms.
We are rapidly turning into a Stasi-style police state, one state at a time, which is our only hope because we can at least see it coming. If this cr@p is going down in Kalifornica, we in Georgia have time to inoculate ourselves against the advancing contagion.
First, there’s nothing currently that prevents people from asking this to happen now. Anyone can ask. Secondly, how does the government have power and jurisdiction to grant this kind of power to loved ones, “intimate partners”, friends, family, etc? It just sounds absurd.
Every Dem in Kalifornia state legislature should be committed to a mental hospital since they are all unstable and ill.
Legislators will be exempt. Legislators are always exempt.
The trouble is, for most in California the fact someone owns guns and likes to practice with them is proof posivitve they are "mentally ill or unstable folks". So it's a bit of a catch-22.
Power grab by totalitarians. The killer was a totalitarian too, he wanted to ban women.
As well as anyone else who doesn’t like you or guns or both for that matter.
What is the qualification for a friend informing on you?
What could go wrong?
What could go wrong?
Legislators and cops will be exempt.
So the murderer makes sure his victims are unarmed by dropping a dime of him/her before he walks over and does the deed. Makes sense to me.
That provides a three day hold for an evaluation. At the end of that time he is free to leave if they cannot clearly identify a problem. He was evidently together enough to be able to hide his wackiness from others when he wanted to do so.
Anyone could literally claim friendship with anyone in the world and make this claim against them. You could just say an enemy is you friend and, presto!
This seems like a clear 2nd amendment violation. Also, Friends and Family have no qualification to be assessing someone’s pre-crime thoughts to take away their rights.
But, this matches liberal and communist thinking completely so I have no doubt it will be implemented in that retardo state of California.
giving the crazy relative who “knows best for everyone” authority over that person?
does this include citizens identifying crazy police and politicians?
His parents didn’t do anything because they were enablers.
They bought him $60,000 cars and paid his rent. They coddled him when he didn’t want to go to school. Every job was beneath him, because he was superior to everyone else. He believed that women should just throw themselves at him because he was so wonderful, and no one ever disavowed him of this idea. As far as I can tell, he never even spoke to a woman, he just expected them to approach him and give themselves to him. This was a guy who thought he was so smart that he should rule the world.
And when none of that happened he made a plan and killed a bunch of people.
His parents weren’t going to have him committed. He was a special little snowflake, and he could do no wrong. I’m sure his parents blame the evil women who ignored him and the NRA for letting those evil guns shoot those “not-so innocent” girls....
And next on the agenda legislation that would give family or friends of a potential Conservatives the right to severely limit their First Amendment rights, oh I forgot there a demonrats who already want to do that now! In the liberals future must show your papers to prove that you are the proper class of citizen to exercise certain rights.
hahahahhahah I laughed so hard reading your comment.
Sadly that is the leftist mantra worldwide, and is exactly what they are trying to do in this case and all over America as a whole.
What I find hilarious is the same kids who learned about these ridiculous tactics by the USSR and laughed at them in class with me (I’m born in ‘82 and HS class of 2000 for reference) and we all agreed were absolutely ridiculous, are now the same idiots voting, coming up with and supporting this ridiculousness till they are blue in the face.
I can’t do anything buy smack my forehead over and over again day after day after day.
Most of our fellow Americans have intelligence and critical thinking skills that are so low it is a wonder they can even pick up and use their EBT cards.
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