Violence in California

• While nearly two-thirds (63.2%; n=2188) of survey respondents favored police-initiated petitions, write-in responses illuminated nuanced and context-dependent tradeoffs situated within racialized legal, political, and economic systems. 
• These tradeoffs included: 
  1. systems knowledge versus relational and contextual knowledge;
  2. mainstream credibility versus direct lines of communication;
  3. procedural burden versus personal capacity and responsibility;
  4. fear of repercussions versus wariness of law enforcement;

(SACRAMENTO) Individuals subject to extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), or “red flag” laws, were significantly less likely to be arrested — including for violent and firearm-related offenses — while the orders were in effect compared to the six months prior.

Strikingly, the drop in arrests did not end when the orders expired and continued for months afterward.

Those are the results of a new study published in PNAS Nexus.

“Extreme risk protection orders are often talked about as a way to prevent suicide, but our findings show they may do more than that. People subject to these orders in California were less likely to be arrested for violence or other crimes while the orders were in effect and even after they ended, suggesting ERPOs have a meaningful role to play in preventing interpersonal violence.”

-Veronica Pear, assistant professor and lead author

The 2018 California Safety and Wellbeing Survey (CSaWS) is publicly available to facilitate additional scientific research and informed decision-making about strategies for preventing violence and improving safety and health equity outcomes. The dataset and supplemental materials are located in the University of Michigan's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention (IFIP) Data Repository on openICPSR. Access the dataset here.

• Most respondents (67.4%) reported having never heard of extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs).

BACKGROUND

Firearm violence is a major public health problem in the United States, yet most states lack a mechanism to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who are at high and imminent risk of harming themselves or others and are not otherwise prohibited. Extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws are intended to close this gap. The current study examines the passage of California’s gun violence restraining order (GVRO) bill using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework.

METHODS

Identifying community characteristics associated with firearm assault could facilitate prevention. We investigated the effect of community firearm dealer and alcohol outlet densities on individual risk of firearm assault injury.

Suicide is a major public health problem with immediate and long-term effects on individuals, families, and communities. In 2020 and 2021, stressors wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home mandates, economic turmoil, social unrest, and growing inequality likely modified risk for self-harm. The coinciding surge in firearm purchasing may have increased risk for firearm suicide.

“Four mass shootings in California in the past 10 days have left many wondering why this is still happening and what we can do to prevent it. In the Southern California city of Monterey Park, 11 people were killed in a ballroom by a man who was a frequent patron there. In Half Moon Bay, seven people were shot and killed at two agricultural sites by a co-worker.

Firearm availability has been linked to firearm self-harm, but the joint relationship with alcohol availability, while supported by theory, has not been examined. This study sought to quantify the separate and joint relations of community firearm and alcohol availability with individual-level risk of (fatal and nonfatal) firearm self-harm.