SaN FRANCISCO -- California's justice system performs abysmally when it comes to handling domestic violence cases, even allowing abusers to own firearms, which is prohibited by law, according to a state report issued Tuesday.

The report, "Local Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence," commissioned by Attorney General Bill Lockyer, is an indictment of the legal system.

Among its findings: restraining orders are not enforced or served because there is no protocol for doing so, mandatory education programs for offenders are not carried out, and counties are failing to add the names of domestic violence abusers prohibited from possessing firearms to a weapons database.

"The laws on the books ... need to be implemented and enforced," Lockyer said during a news conference here. "System fatigue is not a valid excuse."

In some counties, as many as 50 percent of all domestic violence restraining orders issued are not served on the abuser, invalidating the order, the report said.

Chief Justice Ronald George blamed part of the problem on court system employees untrained in the law. Next month, George said, thousands of workers will receive Internet training about restraining orders and the state weapons database, among other things.

In Mono County, the worst violator, more than 52 percent of all domestic violence convictions did not find their way into the weapons database. Lake County was 33 percent. In the larger counties, San Francisco was 16.6 percent; Kern 16.1 percent and Santa Barbara 14.3 percent.

"It was not possible to conclude whether the courts in these counties had failed to include firearm restrictions in their orders, or whether the recording agency, usually law enforcement, had entered the data incorrectly," the report said.

George pledged the report "will not gather dust."

Most of the findings were based on a review of 10 counties -- Humboldt, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Solano and Tulare. Other figures included all or most of the 58 counties.

The report noted in 2003 in California, there were 48,854 domestic violence arrests -- 80 percent of offenders were men. Police that year received 194,288 calls about suspected domestic violence, more than half involving weapons.