AB 824 (2025): Protective Orders and Firearms Surrender

What the Bill Would Do

AB 824, authored by Assembly Member Catherine Stefani (D) with Assembly Member Sabrina Cervantes (D) as coauthor, would amend multiple sections of the Code of Civil Procedure, Family Code, and Penal Code to strengthen the connection between civil protective orders and firearms-surrender requirements ^[1].

The bill's key substantive change is to require, upon a court's issuance of a covered protective order, that the restrained person relinquish any firearm and ammunition in their immediate possession or control within 24 hours of being served. Permitted means of relinquishment are surrender to local law enforcement or sale to a licensed gun dealer. The bill applies across multiple order types: civil harassment, domestic violence, elder or dependent adult abuse, gun violence (GVRO), postsecondary school, and workplace violence restraining orders.

The bill includes two prospective operative dates written into its provisions:

- The relinquishment requirement is operative beginning January 1, 2026.
- A separate Judicial Council requirement (a remote-appearance notice on petition forms, plus a court duty to permit remote appearance at no cost for postsecondary and workplace-violence restraining-order hearings) is operative beginning July 1, 2026.

If a respondent declines to relinquish based on the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the court may grant use immunity for the act of relinquishment.

Current Status

AB 824 passed the full Assembly on June 3, 2025 by a 78-0 vote. It passed the Senate Public Safety Committee (6-0) and the Senate Judiciary Committee (13-0), then was held under submission in the Senate Appropriations Committee following the August 29, 2025 hearing. As a 2025 first-year bill, it carried over into the 2026 second year of the session. As of May 2026, the bill's 2026 disposition is unconfirmed: no Senate Appropriations 2026 action is recorded in available LegiScan data, and it has not been chaptered. The January 1, 2026 operative date written into the bill is contingent on enactment.

Context

California already has some of the nation's strongest laws connecting protective orders to firearms restrictions. Under existing Penal Code sections and Family Code section 6389, individuals subject to domestic-violence restraining orders must surrender their firearms within 24 hours. AB 824 would extend the 24-hour relinquishment standard, with the Fifth Amendment use-immunity backstop, to the broader set of civil protective orders listed above. The bill's unanimous passage through the Assembly and both Senate policy committees indicates broad bipartisan support, but the Senate Appropriations hold has stalled it pending 2026 action.