The July 27, 2005, issue of the Santa Maria Times stated that, "California's justice system performs abysmally when it comes to handling domestic violence cases, even allowing abusers to own firearms, which is prohibited by law, according to a state report issued July 26, 2005.
The report, "Local Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence," showed the following findings:
* Restraining orders are not enforced or served because there is no protocol for doing so
* Mandatory education programs for offenders are not carried out
* Counties are failing to add the names of domestic violence abusers prohibited from possessing firearms to weapons database.
In some counties, the report stated that as many as 50 percent of all domestic violence restraining orders issued are not served on the abuser, in effect invalidating the order.
In Mono County, more than 52 percent of all domestic violence convictions did not find their way into the weapons database. Lake County was 33 percent. In the larger counties, San Francisco was 16.6 percent, Kern 16.1 percent, and Santa Barbara 14.3 percent.
To the state's credit -- since part of the problem is court system employees untrained in the law -- August, 2005, was to have seen thousands of workers receiving Internet training about restraining orders and the state weapons database.
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