AB-1810 creates dangerous loophole SLO County District Attorney says

Assembly Bill 1810 is a new law that dramatically changes the criminal justice system in California.

“It was attached to the budget and when it passed, this bill passed without any scrutiny and it created mental health diversion,” said San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow.

This means mentally ill people convicted of anything from child abuse to murder could be asked to be taken out of the court system and treated in the community. If a psychologist is able to prove the crimes were committed because of a diagnosable mental disorder their convictions can be wiped clean. Now some prosecutors are arguing this law creates a dangerous loophole as the mentally ill won’t be prohibited to own a firearm like those who go through the traditional system.

“We have this situation where right now, someone who is mentally ill and dangerous because they’ve committed a crime, can purchase a firearm legally, more easily than somebody who has committed a crime and is not mentally ill. I think we should all be able to agree if you’re mentally ill and you’ve committed a crime, we need to make sure you don’t have firearms. We can’t risk another Jacksonville, Florida, another school shooting, somewhere in our community. So it’s important that the legislature fix that right away,” Dow explained.

On Tuesday, Dow wrote another a letter to legislators asking them to amend the law and fix the loophole.

He’s concerned there might not be enough time for it to be fixed before the legislative session ends on Friday, as bills have to be available to the public to view for 72 hours before they can vote on it.

“Unfortunately now within that 72 hours I’m not sure if possible for them to do it unless they suspend the rules and do some other things to be able to address this issue.”

San Luis Obispo County has had its fair share of shortcomings dealing with the mentally ill and have been actively working on it.

“I’m proud of the efforts I’ve been apart of in our county to improve the treatment of mentally ill offenders in San Luis Obispo County. We have a long way to go because we need so many more resources,” Dow said.

We also reached out to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office to comment on this story and are still waiting to hear back.