Groundbreaking

California Allows Relatives to Seize Guns

Of family members using restraining order.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a law that makes California the first state in the U.S. to allow private citizens to ask a court to seize guns from family members they believe pose a threat to themselves or the public. The law will permit law-enforcement officials, family members, and some others to seek a restraining order from a judge. That order would authorize officials to temporarily seize any firearm owned by someone deemed potentially violent, and that person also would be placed on a list of people prohibited from purchasing weapons. Clamor to change the state’s gun laws followed the killing of six people by Elliot Rodger, who stabbed and shot to death fellow students at University of California Santa Barbara before killing himself.