If I Own a Firearm, Does My Husband Have to Move Out Under a California Protective Order?

Attorney Answer

The firearm restriction in your protective order is about your husband owning, possessing, or having access to a firearm, not about whether a firearm exists anywhere in the house. Simply owning a gun yourself does not automatically force him to move out, but how you store it matters a great deal.

California Family Code section 6389 prohibits a person subject to a domestic violence restraining order from owning, possessing, purchasing, or receiving a firearm while the order is in effect, and generally requires that person to relinquish any firearms they already have. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8)) creates a similar prohibition for people subject to qualifying domestic violence protective orders. The key legal concept is possession and control, not simply being in the same home as a gun that legally belongs to someone else. These rules work the same way whether the protective order came from a family court or from a criminal case, so they apply to a criminal protective order that allows peaceful contact.

That said, if your firearm is easily accessible to your husband, such as unlocked, in a shared space, or somewhere he could reach it, that can create a real problem. Courts and prosecutors sometimes treat easy access as a form of "constructive possession," meaning your husband could be seen as violating the order even though the gun is legally yours. To avoid that risk, store your firearm somewhere only you can access it, such as a locked safe he does not have the combination or key to.

Separately, if you want him excluded from the property entirely, that is its own legal step. California courts can grant an order excluding a person from a shared residence as part of a domestic violence restraining order (Family Code section 6321), regardless of who owns the firearm, but this is a distinct request from the firearm relinquishment rule. If your current order does not already exclude him from the home, the firearm issue by itself likely does not force that outcome.

What you can do:

1. Secure your firearm in a locked location he cannot access, and keep proof of how it is stored. 2. Review the exact terms of your protective order for any language about the residence, not just firearms. 3. Talk to your family law attorney about whether requesting a residence exclusion order makes sense given the divorce. 4. Confirm your husband has relinquished any firearms he owned, as required by the order.

This is general legal information, not legal advice. Because firearm and protective order violations can carry serious criminal consequences, a California family law or criminal defense attorney should review the exact terms of your order before you rely on this guidance.