San Mateo County beefs up gun restriction enforcement

Twenty law enforcement agencies, the District Attorney’s Office and the San Mateo County Superior Court have partnered to launch the San Mateo County Gun Violence Prevention Program. The effort builds on existing local initiatives focused on streamlining the process to apply for and obtain a restraining order and confiscating guns from those who should not have them including felons, convicted stalkers, those with active restraining orders against them, people convicted of hate crimes, and those ordered by the court to not have guns due to probation.

“This is a program that is not aimed at preventing those who can legally, responsibly possess firearms from having them,” Callagy said. “Rather, it is aimed at protecting our residents from those who have forfeited their right by prior felonies or restraining orders or possessing illegal guns.”

The program will be supported in part by a $2 million contribution over the next two years from the Board of Supervisors along with departmental funds. Superior Court Judge Susan Greenberg thanked officials for their support of the program, which she said would help fill a gap made by a lack of resources and a vast workload.

With the support of a new Superior Court commissioner and paralegal in the Family Law Facilitator’s Office, the courts will lead efforts to expedite restraining order application processing. The commissioner will handle civil restraining order cases not assigned to one of three all-purpose family law judges, Greenberg said, who noted each judge has a caseload of about 1,700 cases each with 1,400 active cases on average a year.

Meanwhile, a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force will lead the firearm removal portion of the initiative. The task force will be stationed in the DA’s office and staffed with detectives from the South San Francisco and San Mateo police departments who will investigate a case in which someone is accused of owning a firearm when they shouldn’t and notify the current law enforcement agency when intervention is needed.

“We are in a position where we could actually do something and that is a tremendous thing but it isn’t done by one group alone. … It has to be a collaboration of every segment,” District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. “The courts have to do their part and they are. … [But] a court order, if someone doesn’t do anything with it, you might as well throw it in the fireplace. It means nothing. The enforcement component has to occur.”

Julia Weber, implementation director and domestic violence expert at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, lauded the program in a press release. In the same release, the organization said the program could be a “cutting-edge” model adopted in other locations.

“San Mateo County’s deep commitment to taking a comprehensive and countywide approach to reducing risk and increasing safety by dedicating resources to this issue is commendable and should serve as a model for communities across the state and the country,” Weber said. “Fair and effective implementation of gun safety policies and procedures saves lives and we’ve been honored to be a part of the cutting-edge work being done in San Mateo County.”

Board President Don Horsley and Supervisor Dave Pine, who sponsored the initiative, also shared their strong appreciation for the program and collaborators. Horsley, a former county sheriff, noted the state estimates that about 25,000 people are armed despite being prohibited from owning a firearm, stressing the importance of enforcement.

“This effort focuses on a proven approach to preventing violence and improving public safety: removing guns from the hands of those who are, by law, prohibited from possessing firearms,” Horsley said. “This effort creates collaboration between, and targets resources to, law enforcement and the courts.”

Reflecting on the prevalence of gun violence in the nation, Pine said it’s imperative that local agencies do what they can to create safer communities as state and federal legislation make their way through the necessary steps to approval.

In San Mateo County, supervisors have passed gun storage and gun dealership ordinances meant to regulate how firearms are safely kept both in private homes and within stores. And the county has also hosted a number of gun buyback events, removing hundreds of firearms from the public.

“The prevalence of gun violence in this country is completely unacceptable. We hear of tragic incidents, it seems like, every day,” Pine said. “So it’s incumbent upon us to do what we can to reduce gun violence.”

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