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Public Safety

California Eyes First-In-Nation Firearms Restraint

California could become the first state to allow family members, licensed therapists and health care providers to petition a judge to take firearms away from someone who has shown signs that they could harm others or themselves.

California's bill, AB1014, was prompted by an attack in May that left six people, and the student attacker, dead in Isla Vista, near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A Senate committee will hear it Monday as state lawmakers return from a monthlong summer recess.

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Connecticut, Indiana and Texas already have laws that let law enforcement seek to take guns from people they consider a danger.

Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner of Berkeley says her California bill would help in cases where family members are the first to see the warning signs.

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