Red Flag laws help protect people from those who own guys and who seem to be at risk for hurting others. It is a policy that lets family members or law enforcement file an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO). An ERPO is a court order that temporarily restricts a persons ability to have a firearm if they seem to be a risk to themselves or others. In my humanities class this year, we had to write a letter to our City Councilman explaining how passing a Red Flag Law could be really great for Philadelphia. Since we wrote the letters, the State Representative of Pennsylvania, Todd Stevens, introduced a Red Flag Law for Pennsylvania, but it has not yet been passed. In my opinion, after researching all of this, I really feel that Red Flag Laws will be helpful in keeping guns away from dangerous people.
The main purpose behind Red Flag Laws, or ERPOs, is to keep firearms away from dangerous people. For example: Your family member owns a firearm. That person becomes violent or threatening. You can file a complaint to a lawyer or a judge, and there would be a court case. The court will decide if they will take away the firearm with the evidence. The violent or aggressive family member can’t fight against this, and they would have a time limit to turn in the firearm. If they refuse, this would lead to fines and jail time for them. Most mass shooters show warning signs before they commit mass murder. Red flag laws are not a perfect answer, but they can buy law enforcement some time when warning signs show up.
Red Flag Laws do more than protect against mass shootings, they also protect against suicide by guns. Suicide makes up about 2⁄3 of the gun deaths in the United States. Keeping guns away from someone with suicide warning signs through Red Flag Laws can help reduce the number of gun deaths by suicide. There was a study in Connecticut about their Red Flag Law and it showed that they saved about 72 or more lives from suicide by guns in the year 2017. Most people who try and commit suicide but don’t have a gun, are not successful. Those who have access to a gun are 3 times more likely to be successful with a suicide attempt. It is important to remember that gun laws and gun control is not just about preventing mass shootings, although that’s important. It is about keeping everyday people safe from any gun violence that might happen.
So far, 13 states have passed these types of laws, and 29 others are considering them to hopefully help reduce gun violence. In my research, it says that 7 states in the Northeast region have passed Red Flag Laws, and only one state in the South has. The state in the south is Florida, and it was passed after the Parkland School shooting. The politicians in Florida did this right after the Parkland shooting, but no surrounding states have moved forward with it. Three other states that want to enact the law are Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The midwest region has two states with this law (Illinois and Indiana), but the southwest has no states with the Red Flag Law. The Western part of the country has 3 different states with this law (Washington, Oregon and California). In my opinion, it seems that all of the states would be interested in passing Red Flag Laws, but sadly that isn’t the case.
In the months since Parkland happened, 12 states have passed Red Flag Laws. Now to me, that is awesome that so many states are on top of the idea. I think it’s really encouraging how quickly some politicians backed this idea with their agenda. If everyone could be on board with the idea of passing Red Flag Laws, imagine how many people would be better protected in the coming 5-10 years! With these laws, the percentage of shootings and deaths would go down. If it were up to me, I would like to see the percentage of gun related deaths to drop by 5% in the next year. With the help of Red Flag Laws, and with the help of smart politicians, America can see big changes coming soon.
I’m Charlie Cohen, and thanks for reading. Feel free to comment down below. Also, feel free to visit my fundraising site to help me raise money for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
https://secure.csgv.org/page/contribute/https-secure-csgv-org-page-contribute-cohen
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