Protective orders: firearms and ammunition: notice and procedures

The law expands safeguards for people protected by restraining orders and gives courts, prosecutors, and law enforcement clearer tools to identify, report, and address unlawful firearm or ammunition possession.

What the law does ​

• Requires people subject to specified protective or restraining orders to relinquish ammunition as well as firearms, with proof of compliance.
• Requires officers to take temporary custody of ammunition in plain sight or lawfully discovered at qualifying domestic-violence incidents or while serving specified orders.
• Beginning January 1, 2028, allows no-notice emergency restraining-order applications when sworn advance notice would likely endanger the applicant or others.
• Beginning January 1, 2028, requires electronic filing and free remote appearances for workplace- and postsecondary-school violence restraining-order cases.
• Allows courts to order firearm-system and other record searches for additional types of restraining orders and requires search results to remain confidential.
• Requires local law-enforcement and prosecuting agencies to designate contacts for court notices of firearm-relinquishment noncompliance; prosecutors must adopt policies to notify protected people of criminal protective orders.
• Allows enforcement of valid out-of-state extreme risk protection orders and expands reporting of protective orders into California's statewide order system.
• Starting in 2027, imposes a 10-year firearm prohibition after convictions for specified protective-order and hate-crime-related misdemeanors.

Who it affects ​

• People subject to civil, criminal, domestic-violence, gun-violence, workplace, school, elder-abuse, or hate-crime protective orders.
• Protected people, petitioners, domestic-violence survivors, employees, and postsecondary students seeking restraining orders.
• Courts, local law-enforcement agencies, district attorneys, prosecuting city attorneys, and licensed firearms dealers.

Context ​

Key court-access, service, and interstate extreme-risk-order provisions take effect January 1, 2028.

Breakdown ​

Firearm Relinquishment and Remote Hearings ​

AB 1753 clarifies that people subject to covered protective or restraining orders must give up ammunition as well as firearms that they immediately possess or control. Beginning January 1, 2028, courts must offer free remote participation in hearings for postsecondary school and workplace violence restraining orders and must accept related electronic filings. Courts must create and post online instructions and rules for remote appearances.

Key takeaways

• The bill expressly requires restrained people to relinquish ammunition, along with firearms, that they immediately possess or control.
• This clarification applies to the protective and restraining order procedures covered by the bill.
• Beginning January 1, 2028, courts must allow parties and witnesses to appear remotely for postsecondary school and workplace violence restraining order hearings without charge.
• Courts must develop rules and instructions for remote appearances and post them on their websites.
• Beginning January 1, 2028, courts must allow electronic submission of filings related to postsecondary school and workplace violence restraining orders, as specified.

Safer Filing and Service Procedures ​

Starting January 1, 2028, courts cannot require advance notice to the person targeted by an emergency restraining-order request when the applicant or lawyer swears that notice before filing would likely endanger the applicant or others. The bill also requires peace officers serving covered protective orders to follow the same service procedures as sheriffs and marshals. It directs the Judicial Council to create statewide service-request forms that can also be used for service by peace officers.

Key takeaways

• An applicant or their lawyer may avoid giving advance notice before an emergency restraining-order filing if they certify under oath that notice would likely create a safety risk.
• The protection applies both when the court accepts the filing and when it decides the emergency restraining-order request.
• Beginning January 1, 2028, peace officers must use the service procedures that apply to sheriffs and marshals when serving superior-court civil process.
• By January 1, 2028, the Judicial Council must create statewide forms for requesting service or notice by a sheriff, marshal, or eligible peace officer.
• The bill creates new duties for local law-enforcement officers and expands potential perjury consequences for sworn safety certifications.

Firearm Searches for Protective Orders ​

The bill requires prosecutors handling domestic-violence charges to check the state Automated Firearms System for firearm information. It also lets courts order similar background searches before several other types of restraining-order hearings. After ruling in those cases, courts must tell parties they can request the search information and must keep the results in a confidential case file, subject to stated exceptions.

Key takeaways

• Prosecutors must search the Department of Justice Automated Firearms System when handling charges involving domestic violence.
• The added prosecutor duty creates a state-required local program.
• Courts may order background searches before hearings on civil harassment, elder or dependent adult abuse, gun violence, postsecondary school, and workplace violence restraining orders.
• For those restraining-order proceedings, courts must tell parties after the ruling that they may request the information used and obtained in the search.
• Information obtained through these court-ordered searches must be kept in a confidential case file, except as otherwise specified.

Enforcing Firearm Relinquishment Orders ​

The bill requires local law enforcement and prosecuting agencies to designate contacts who receive court notices when someone violates a firearm relinquishment requirement. It also requires prosecuting agencies to notify protected people about protective orders and adopt written notification policies by January 1, 2028. Starting that date, California law enforcement may seek to enforce qualifying extreme risk protection orders from other jurisdictions, which can be registered in California if requested.

Key takeaways

• Local law enforcement and prosecuting agencies must name a person responsible for receiving or accessing court notices of firearm relinquishment violations.
• These agencies must regularly give the court clerk current contact information for their designated notification recipient.
• Prosecuting agencies must ensure that protected people are notified of a protective order’s issuance, terms, and duration, subject to specified exceptions.
• By January 1, 2028, prosecuting agencies must develop and implement written policies and standards for notifying protected people.
• Beginning January 1, 2028, law enforcement officers or agencies may seek enforcement of valid out-of-state extreme risk protection orders that prohibit firearm possession because the person poses a danger to themselves or others.
• A qualifying out-of-state extreme risk protection order must be registered with a California court when requested by a law enforcement officer or another petitioner.

Reporting Protective Orders ​

AB 1753 expands county reporting duties for protective and restraining orders. Counties must electronically report covered orders, including gun violence restraining orders and extreme risk protection orders, through the state law-enforcement system so they are included in the state protective-order database.

Key takeaways

• Counties must electronically report additional types of protective and restraining orders through the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System.
• The added reporting duty includes gun violence restraining orders and extreme risk protection orders.
• The reported orders will be included in the Department of Justice’s California Restraining and Protective Order System.
• Court clerks and law enforcement personnel can access the order information through the existing state system.

Out-of-State Protection Orders ​

This part broadens which protection orders California can enforce. It adds injunctions and orders covered by the federal Violence Against Women Act and applies the rules to orders from any state or other jurisdiction.

Key takeaways

• California may enforce a broader range of protection orders from outside the state.
• The bill adds injunctions and orders issued under the federal Violence Against Women Act to the definition of a protection order.
• The enforcement provisions would apply to orders issued by any state or other jurisdiction.
• The bill also makes related technical changes to align the law with the expanded coverage.

Protective Person Notification System ​

The bill expands how the Department of Justice may fund an automated system that provides information and notifications to protected persons. Instead of requiring a legislative appropriation, the department may create or contract for the system when grant funding or other funding sources are available.

Key takeaways

• The Department of Justice may establish or hire a vendor to establish the automated protected-person information and notification system when necessary funding is available from grants or other sources.
• The bill removes the requirement that the system depend specifically on a legislative appropriation.
• The change gives the department additional funding options for creating the notification system.

Expanded 10-Year Firearm Ban ​

Starting January 1, 2027, the bill adds specified convictions to the offenses that trigger a 10-year ban on possessing or obtaining firearms. The added offenses include misdemeanor violations of gun violence restraining orders and other protective orders, as well as violations that are hate crimes. Because violating the expanded prohibition can be prosecuted as a crime, the change creates a state-required local program.

Key takeaways

• People convicted on or after January 1, 2027, of the newly specified offenses cannot own, buy, receive, possess, or control a firearm for 10 years after conviction.
• The added offenses include misdemeanor violations of gun violence restraining orders and other protective orders.
• The added offenses also include violations that constitute hate crimes.
• The bill makes related technical changes to align the law with the expanded firearm prohibition.
• Expanding the existing firearm-possession crime creates a state-mandated local program.

Temporary Seizure of Ammunition ​

The bill requires peace officers responding to domestic violence incidents or enforcing certain restraining orders to temporarily take ammunition they lawfully see or find. This matches the existing duty to take firearms and other deadly weapons in those situations.

Key takeaways

• Peace officers must temporarily take ammunition that is in plain sight or found through a consensual or otherwise lawful search.
• The requirement applies when an officer responds to a domestic violence incident or enforces a domestic violence or gun violence restraining order.
• The bill adds ammunition to the items officers must temporarily take, alongside firearms and other deadly weapons.
• Because the bill expands local law enforcement duties, it creates a state-mandated local program.

Severability ​

This part makes the bill severable. If a court finds one provision invalid, the rest of the bill can remain in effect.

Key takeaways

• A court ruling against one provision does not automatically invalidate the rest of the bill.
• The bill’s remaining valid provisions can continue to operate.

Coordinating Changes With Other Bills ​

This part coordinates AB 1753 with other bills that amend the same laws. It prevents conflicting amendments by specifying when AB 1753's changes do not take effect and when it will include changes from other enacted bills.

Key takeaways

• AB 1753's changes to workplace violence restraining order law would not take effect if AB 2179 is enacted.
• If AB 1753 and AB 1961 both become law and AB 1753 is enacted last, AB 1753 would also include AB 1961's changes to workplace violence restraining order law.
• If AB 1753 and SB 1374 both become law and AB 1753 is enacted last, AB 1753 would also include SB 1374's changes to related protective-order procedures.
• If AB 1753 and either SB 99 or SB 1395, or both, become law and AB 1753 is enacted last, AB 1753 would also include their changes to the Family Code.
• If AB 1753 and SB 1220 both become law and AB 1753 is enacted last, AB 1753 would also include SB 1220's changes to firearm-prohibition law.

Local Cost Reimbursement ​

The bill says local agencies and school districts do not have to be reimbursed for certain mandated costs for a stated reason. If the Commission on State Mandates finds that the bill creates other state-mandated costs, those costs must be reimbursed under existing state procedures.

Key takeaways

• The bill excludes certain mandated costs from state reimbursement for a specified reason.
• The bill preserves reimbursement for other costs that the Commission on State Mandates determines were mandated by the state.
• Any reimbursement for those other mandated costs must follow existing statutory procedures.