Mercury News: South Bay authorities are a state leader in disarming troubled people. But the laws backing them are facing serious challenges.

Santa Clara County now files the second-most proactive gun-violence restraining orders in the state each year: Local authorities intervene on average more than once per day in cases involving people known to be armed and actively threatening themselves and others.

Prosecutors say the county has steadily increased its output of such orders since the onset of a corresponding red flag law in 2016, going from seven filings that year to 405 in 2022. Only San Diego County had more last year.  Such laws are meant to assist authorities in confiscating weapons from people who might be dangerous.

But an array of court fights — both settled and upcoming — pose an existential threat that advocates and experts admit could upend the legal foundation for red-flag laws as a whole.

“There is consensus in the public about the notion that people who are dangerous should not have guns,” said Marisa McKeown, a prosecutor and supervisor of the Crime Strategies Unit in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. “Responsible gun owners should all agree that dangerous people should not have firearms.”