Mimi Rocah: As prosecutors, we count strong gun laws among the practical, commonsense legislative solutions that have saved lives. And key among these solutions are red flag laws. Read more:
who is either unable or unwilling to envision a legislative solution, asserted in an interview that Congress is “not gonna fix” the problem of school shootings and argued that the U.S. needs not gun control legislation but a “real revival.” But as prosecutors, we count strong gun laws among the practical, commonsense legislative solutions that have saved lives. And key among these solutions are red flag laws.
The problem of mass shootings, including those that target children at schools, has caused some lawmakers to essentially throw up their hands in defeat., three of which were used in the attack, which police say was “calculated and planned.” Significantly, as in so many other mass shootings, early reporting indicates that the attacker exhibited troubling warning signs to family members.
Well-known and widely discussed proposals include banning assault weapons, closing loopholes on background checks and instituting waiting periods. But we first should focus on passing strong extreme risk laws at the national and state levels, and where such laws already exist, we should focus on raising awareness of them and significantly increasing the training for those who will be asked to invoke them.
Currently, 19 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted red flag laws, which allow judges to temporarily remove people’s access to guns and temporarily prevent the purchase of new guns when there is evidence that the people pose serious risks to themselves or others. But that leaves 31 states, including Tennessee, with no such tool.
This means that even if the Nashville shooter’s parents had wanted to raise the “red flag” about the dangerous warning signs they saw in their adult child, their options were limited. And even in states that have strong red flag laws, we believe there has been significant underuse because of a lack of awareness and training.
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