Not that i'm an expert in legalese, but i had an elderly neighbor lady that had no family in hundreds of miles, so her daughter requested weekly welfare checks by the local pd. the point i'm trying to make here is that there is a HUGE difference (as far as i understand it) between a pd welfare check and an officer responding to a report of an unstable person.
If the latter of these two instances is what this law deals with, then it seems logical for an officer to know if the unstable person he's going to try to help has a weapon that may be turned on himself or on the officer. Having said this, the same officer that may benefit from knowing if there is a registered firearm in the home has no way of knowing if the unstable fellow has an unregistered gun, a butcher's knife, or a table leg he is going to attack with. since this is the case every time an officer responds to any call, the law in question seems less than useful at best, if not unnecessarily intrusive.
Again, the prior paragraph was about an officer responding to a call - in the case of little old Ms. Bateman next door, i am completely befuddled why an officer needs to know if she owns a gun - the only logical reason he should know this is to supply her with one if she doesn't, so that she isn't as much of a helpless target!! (maybe that's what's going on, CA is finally coming around people!!) Really, though - in the "welfare check" case, this law seems to be so unnecessary that it makes me suspect it is one step on a carefully thought out path leading to a leftists gunless (and crime riddled) utopia.
really though, how hard would it be to first, slowly pass laws about other cases in which an officer can determine if you own a gun, next pass a law saying that the officer has the ability to temporarily seize the weapon, then to make that seizure longer or permanent.
I also think that anyone who doesn't believe that there are policy makers out there with these kinds of specific, stepwise plans to remove guns is beyond naive! that is EXACTLY how they disarmed the UK, and WILL accomplish the same ends here if law makers aren't held in check by those they are supposed to be representing.