Press Releases

Washington, DC – Today, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, supported implementation of gun violence restraining orders (GVRO)s, that are currently law in the Vice President’s home state of Indiana and in California. Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24) introduced the bipartisan Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO) Act, H.R. 2598, which encourages more states to adopt these protections.  

“Our country is still struggling to comprehend how so many warning signs failed to stop the killing of 17 students and educators in Parkland,” said Rep. Carbajal. “Today, the President called on Congress to find common ground and work toward solutions that can prevent tragedies like this from happening again. Gun Violence Restraining Orders do just that, disarming individuals in crisis while maintaining due process. I am hopeful to see the President and Vice President express their support for this commonsense measure to provide law enforcement a tool to temporarily disarm individuals in crisis. It is already saving lives in states like Indiana and California that have adopted these measures, and I urge Speaker Ryan to immediately give us a vote on this bipartisan legislation.”

Watch the full exchange here or read the partial transcript below:

Vice President Pence: [Mr. President], you’ve spoken about Gun Violence Restraining Orders, they’re called. California has a version of this. In your meeting with governors earlier this week, we spoke about states taking steps but the focus is to literally give families and give local law enforcement additional tools so if an individual is reported to be a danger to themselves or others -- and allow due process, so no one’s rights are trampled -- but the ability to go to court, obtain an order, and then collect not only firearms but any weapon in the possession of that individual.

President Trump: Or, Mike, take the firearms first and then go to court. Because that’s another system.  A lot of time, by the time you go to court it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures. I like taking the guns early. Like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida, he had a lot of flaws. They saw everything. To go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first but go through due process second.

Pence: If we think about the tragedy in Sandy Hook and Adam Lanza’s mother, who spoke to local officials and law enforcement, she was concerned. Over and over again. I know our colleagues in Connecticut lived this and saw it, but to literally give families the tools, as my state and other states have done, to take action to remove those weapons for either a set period of time or longer to make sure that person can’t be a threat.

Trump: I like that.

Senator Rubio: That’s a state law provision and I know there’s some people working on what we can do at the federal level to incentivize states to do this, but states are allowed to do it right now. Hopefully Florida will do that here shortly. It brings home this point, and I think the VP alluded to it, but there are people here who tried to do something. They called, they called the FBI and the Sheriff’s Office but legally they had no recourse to sort of get ahead of this and stop them in terms of taking away his guns and placing them in a facility or some other measure, with a court order, to prevent him from being able to do this. And even if law enforcement had gone to see him, they would have been limited in their options as well. So this is an idea states can do and I think there may be something we can do to incentivize it.

Background:

The Gun Violence Restraining Order Act would incentivize states to enable family members or law enforcement officials to go to a court to seek a “gun violence prevention order,” to temporarily stop someone who poses a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing a gun.

The bill will also ensure that a court can issue a “gun violence prevention warrant,” allowing law enforcement to take temporary possession of firearms that are in an individual’s possession if the court determines that the individual poses a threat to themselves or others. Furthermore, it would ensure that law enforcement makes full use of all existing state and local gun databases when assessing a tip, warning, or request from a concerned family member or other close associate.

California implemented Gun Violence Restraining Orders in 2014 in response to the deadly mass shooting in Isla Vista.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced the companion legislation S. 1212 in the Senate.

Read the full bill text here.