SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Two California legislators introduced a bill Tuesday to create a "gun violence restraining order" that they said would give family and friends of a person threatening to harm others the tools needed to take guns or to prevent the person from buying new ones.
California Assembly members Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, say people should be able to intervene -- much as a therapist can today -- to notify law enforcement when someone they know appears likely to hurt others or themselves.
The bill, modeled after systems in Connecticut, Texas and Indiana, would require law enforcement officials to ask a judge to grant the firearm restraining order in a process similar to a domestic violence restraining order.
The language for AB1014 was drafted last year, Skinner said, but the bill was ultimately dropped as Democrats focused on other gun control legislation. Skinner revived it Tuesday after the shooting rampage on Friday at Isla Vista near UC Santa Barbara.
Skinner said it's often family and friends who spot the warning signs of someone in crisis, but there is little they can do under current law to remove their guns or prevent them from buying more.
In Friday's massacre, the mother of 22-year-old Elliott Rodger attempted to alert authorities to her son's threats.
"The tragedy of this situation is that the mother tried to intervene, but the tools she had access to were limited," Skinner said.
Seven people died, including the suspect, and 13 others were injured. The victims were mostly students at UC Santa Barbara who came to the coastal city from communities all over the state, with at least five from the Bay Area.
"The tragic incident in my hometown of Isla Vista is not a result of gun laws failing," Williams said. "Rather, it is a horrific example of how our mental health laws and gun control laws are not working together."
As families mourn their loss, lawmakers said they too are struggling to make sense out of the attack.
State Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, said it's incumbent on lawmakers to ask how they can help combat "the culture of violence we live in." Jackson eulogized victims and the Senate observed a moment of silence Tuesday.
"They are young people whose parents will never be able to dance at their weddings, who will never be able to hold their grandchildren in their arms. They are people who will never be able to find the cure for cancer or to brighten up the lives of others because we as a nation have let this behavior go on too long," Jackson said.
Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and other Senate Democrats are scheduled to announce a package of mental health proposals Wednesday, an event scheduled before Friday's rampage. Among the proposals is one to strengthen state protocols to help law enforcement officials identify signs of mental illness.
In a lengthy manifesto Rodger left behind, he said sheriff's officials visited him at his apartment last month for a welfare check at the request of his mother. After the check, Rodger wrote that his violent plans would have been foiled if officers discovered guns in his room.
"Should there be a protocol that when you get a 911 call like that that there is an immediate check of whether the individual has purchased weaponry?" Steinberg said. "Now is the time to talk about this."
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