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Feinstein Proposes Laws in Reaction to Isla Vista Tragedy

By Lata Pandya
June 4, 2014
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Senator Feinstein at a 2012 press event.
Senator Feinstein at a 2012 press event.  | Photo: David Lee/Flickr/Creative Commons License

In a letter addressed to California lawmakers today, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein urged swift action in putting in place restrictions when it comes to the mentally ill being able to purchasing guns.

She wrote to California Governor Brown and other leading state legislators suggesting two primary policy changes. One would give law enforcement the authorization to take away firearms when they credibly identify someone as "a person who poses an immediate threat of harm to himself or to others, or the risk of harm to self."

The other policy recommendation would "create a new civil restraining order process to allow family members and intimate partners to petition the court to authorize temporary removal of firearms and to temporarily prohibit firearm purchase and possession based on a credible risk of physical harm to self or others."

These suggestions come a week after State Senate President Pro Tempore Darrel Steinberg announced a series of recommendations to reform public safety and mental health services. His proposals, both budgetary and policy based, emphasize more money being put toward reforming a broken mental health system, re-establishing the mentally ill offender crime reduction grant program, and training more law enforcement and prison employees on how to work with those who need mental health treatment.

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