The California headlines say it all: another mass shooting, another domestic tragedy, another life gone. But what rarely makes the news are the tools that could have stopped them. That’s what made a recent American Community California News Briefing—co-hosted with California Black Media—so urgent. Framed as a conversation with ethnic media, it pulled back the curtain on California’s gun safety laws and the glaring knowledge gap that keeps too many communities in the crosshairs.
Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media, moderated the session. She opened with a sobering story—a contractor on her own home project who had to walk away from work after gun violence touched his family. A young man intervening in a domestic dispute ended up dead. No one called the police in time. No one knew what else to do.
That “what else” is the crux of California’s Reduce the Risk campaign, launched by Governor Gavin Newsom through the Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). The campaign’s purpose is plain: educate Californians on Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs) and other civil protection tools that allow everyday people to disarm threats before blood is spilled.
The speakers made it clear: California has some of the strongest gun safety laws in the nation. But laws don’t work if people don’t know they exist. And right now, 80% of Californians know little or nothing about GVROs.
Ari Freilich, Director of the DOJ’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, laid out the mechanics. GVROs are civil court orders that let law enforcement, family members, coworkers, school officials, and intimate partners temporarily remove firearms from someone showing warning signs. The standard is not criminal guilt but evidence-based risk. Courts can issue orders for up to five years. And critically, you don’t have to wait for someone to commit a crime to act.
It’s not about punishment. It’s about prevention.
Freilich underscored how GVROs work where other systems fail. He pointed to the 2018 Parkland shooting. Dozens of warnings. Still, the shooter legally bought the weapon. Florida passed a GVRO law after the fact. California had already done it.
Chris Dargan from Cal OES shared the numbers. GVRO usage in California jumped 528% between 2018 and 2023. At the same time, gun-related homicides dropped by 9% last year alone. It’s not correlation. It’s intervention.
But usage still trails need, especially in communities of color. Black and Latino Californians make up the majority of gun homicide victims. They’re also least likely to know about GVROs. That’s why Cal OES is investing in multilingual outreach—14 languages and counting—and working with ethnic media to reach the people who need this information most.
Dr. Amy Barnhorst, a UC Davis psychiatrist and longtime GVRO advocate, offered the system-level perspective. She recalled patients who scared everyone around them—posting kill lists, fantasizing about mass shootings—but didn’t meet the threshold for psychiatric holds or criminal charges. GVROs fill that gap.
She also spoke to suicide prevention. Take away the gun, and you give someone a 90% better chance of surviving a suicide attempt. The number needed to treat? Seventeen. That’s how many GVROs it takes to save one life.
Sergeant Kyle Ikeuchi of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office brought it to the ground level. He recounted case after case: a man threatening to shoot up his workplace; a 15-year-old boy fantasizing about killing his best friend during second period. Each time, GVROs enabled his department to act swiftly, remove weapons, and prevent catastrophe. When families cooperate, it’s straightforward. When they don’t, law enforcement has legal tools to intervene anyway.
Still, trust is a barrier. Communities historically targeted by police may hesitate to involve law enforcement. Ikeuchi and Barnhorst both urged a workaround: have law enforcement file the petition so the family or community member doesn’t have to bear the legal burden—or the fallout.
Then came the voice that shifted the energy in the (virtual) room: Gabriella Gonzalez, a 23-year-old youth advocate from Stanislaus County. At 17, she was stalked, harassed, and threatened with a gun by a man in her neighborhood. He sent videos of himself driving past her house, gun in lap, daring her to run. She told no adults. Why? Because she didn’t think anyone would do anything. She didn’t even know protection orders existed. Months later, he was arrested for threatening to shoot up her high school.
Gabriella’s story is why this campaign matters. She survived. But how many others don’t?
Her call to action was simple: Tell young people. Tell women. Tell the communities most likely to be targeted and least likely to be protected that they have options.
Because the laws are there. The gap is knowledge.
GVROs are not a silver bullet. They don’t treat mental illness. They don’t heal trauma. But they do put time and distance between someone in crisis and a lethal weapon.
California has given its residents a legal off-ramp from disaster. It’s up to us to take it.
Visit ReduceTheRisk.ca.gov.
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