SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — California leaders are launching a new effort to keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous people.
On Tuesday, City Attorney Mara Elliott, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and other leaders announced a historic expansion of the state’s Gun Violence Restraining Order program.
“America leads the world, unfortunately, when it comes to gun violence,” said Bonta.
Bonta says while the U.S. leads when it comes to gun violence, San Diego leads when it comes to gun violence prevention.
“You don't get a headline when a mass shooting is avoided [or] when it's prevented… If you did, San Diego will be front and center,” said Bonta.
“In San Diego alone, GVROs have helped us to take 3,700 weapons off of the streets,” said City Attorney Mara Elliott.
GVROs are court orders that temporarily remove a firearm from a person who is potentially a danger to themselves or to others.
According to Elliott, the new initiative includes more than $4 million in state funding for our region to expand gun violence prevention work here — and statewide.
“The grant funds will help us better identify dangerous people so that we can get court orders requiring them to surrender their firearms,” said Elliott.
Elliott added they’re creating a new regional task force to make it happen. Additionally, her office has already provided training to 39 counties up and down California.
“Our collective work creates a road map to gun violence prevention and we hope to inspire other regions to follow our lead,” she said.
ABC 10News spoke with the mother of an 18-year-old who was shot and killed back in Oct. 2015.
"It's too late for my son, but it's not too late for everybody else's child," said Elizabeth Muñoz, applauding the program's expansion.
The head of the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC pushed back against the idea.
In a statement to ABC 10News, the group's executive director said in part, "If someone is breaking the law, law enforcement can remove firearms from that person without a GVRO and if someone is not breaking the law, we should not be taking away their firearms."
