Gun surrender program extended in San Mateo County

“This program has been enormously successful in getting firearms out of dangerous situations,” said Supervisor Dave Pine, who co-sponsored the resolution extending the program. 

The task force is built through a partnership between the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, the Superior Court, and the San Mateo Police Department, which provides the peace officers to enforce court orders.

Though “we may not know exactly how many lives were saved,” through these gun retrievals Supervisor Noelia Corzo said this program’s impact is significant and is intimately tied with the county’s simultaneous efforts in domestic violence prevention. 

“I’ve been to several domestic violence death review team meetings,” Corzo said. “They are always difficult and there will always be cases where even removing guns was not enough. But I feel really strongly that, without this program, and without [the task force] doing this work, we would have more of those meetings.”

Most program-funded cases — 68% — were civil domestic violence restraining orders. 

Anyone who is subject to a domestic violence restraining order or other civil restraining order must relinquish their firearms by either voluntarily selling them to a licensed federal firearms dealer or giving them to law enforcement, where they can either be destroyed or also sold, Bill Massey, the chief inspector for the District Attorney’s Office, said. 

The task force helps uphold this state law that was once insufficiently enforced due to limited budget and resources. With unanimous approval, the program was extended for another two years, until Nov, 20, 2026, with an additional $600,000 in funding from Measure K budgets.

“Everyone deserves to live free from the fear of gun violence,” Pine said in a press release. “California has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. But those laws alone cannot protect vulnerable people from someone with easy access to a gun. This program will save lives.”