Los Angeles district attorney talks expansion of program to remove guns from domestic violence suspects

LOS ANGELES -- California lawmakers recently passed several gun control measures, including a lifetime ban on gun ownership for people convicted of domestic abuse.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office is working on expanding a program to get guns out of the hands of anyone suspected of domestic violence.

District Attorney Jackie Lacey stopped by the ABC7 newsroom to talk about what her office is doing to protect residents.

"The gun control advocates have said about 50 percent of those cases of mass shootings involve someone with a history of domestic violence. What we saw was a gap - there were people arrested for domestic violence who we could see owned guns because they were registered, but no one was going out to collect them," she said.

Lacey said her office then started a program where they go to court and ask a judge for permission to confiscate the guns of those people. She said the program has been successful so far in Long Beach and Signal Hill.

Watch the interview above to learn more about the expansion of the pilot program.