California officials are ramping up a unique program that identifies and seizes guns from people who are prohibited from keeping them, reports NPR. Under state law, a registered gun owner loses the right to own a firearm if the owner is convicted of a crime or becomes mentally ill. Last year, state agents seized nearly 2,000 firearms, but carrying out the gun seizure program is a painstaking job.
NPR describes how nine agents in a caravan of four unmarked trucks traversed the bedroom communities of San Francisco’s East Bay to visit the homes of 11 people who are considered Armed and Prohibited Persons, people on the so-called APPs list. The National Rifle Association initially supported the program, but it’s since become disenchanted. The program “is being billed as something that it’s not,” says C.D. “Chuck” Michel, a civil rights attorney whose clients include the NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation.