Red Flag Laws Allow Families and Law Enforcement to Ask a Court to Temporarily Suspend a Person’s Access to Guns When They Pose a Serious Threat to Themselves or Others
In Connecticut, the Enforcement of a Red Flag Law Was Associated with 14 Percent Reduction in Firearm Suicide Rate; Ten Years After Passing a Red Flag Law, Indiana’s Firearm Suicide Rate Decreased by 7.5 Percent
WASHINGTON – Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown, released the following statements in response to today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Red Flag laws. Fourteen states and D.C. have already passed Red Flag laws, including eight in 2018 alone. Five of the laws passed last year were signed by Republican governors.
“Loved ones and law enforcement are often the first to see that someone poses a threat to themselves or others — but in too many communities, there’s no way to turn their alarm into action,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Now that 14 states and Washington D.C. have passed Red Flag laws, the Senate should do its part to expand these lifesaving tools to all 50 states and ensure that every American can take action in the days or hours before a suicide or school shooting.”
“I am heartened that the Senate decided to hold this bipartisan hearing in which witnesses made clear that this policy not only works, but it has proper due process protections, ” said Jennifer Lugar, a member of the Everytown Survivor Network whose husband, Scott, died by suicide with a gun in Lutz, Florida, on September 25, 2009. Unlike her husband’s first two attempts, the final one was completed because he had access to a gun. “There is more we can do to intervene when someone is in crisis, and now the Senate must move a bill.”
Just last month, the House of Representatives passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 and the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019, which would address the “Charleston loophole,” which allows licensed dealers to sell a gun after three business days even if a background check has not been completed.