Red Flag Laws Derail Violence But Are Opposed By Second Amendment Sanctuary states
There will never be a single way to avoid gun violence but the red flag laws certainly deter some, saving many lives. That is why it is all so bedeviling that many politicians and law enforcement officers are trying to block the use of one of the few mechanisms that will spare bloodshed.
Use of a so-called “red flag” law might have derailed the violence at a Colorado Springs gay club but the law wasn’t enforced because the authorities believe it is an affront to their second amendment right to possess weapons. The county of El Paso, Colo. was the scene of the Nov. 19, deadly, mass shooting at the gay Club Q in the city of Colorado Springs. The county has declared itself a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” and as a statement against gun controls, doesn’t implement the red flag law.
A red flag or risk based gun removal law permits a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who the court deems to be a danger to others or themselves. A judge makes the determination to issue the order based on statements and actions made by the gun owner. Refusal to comply with the order is punishable as a criminal offense. After a set time, the guns are returned to the person unless another court hearing extends the period of confiscation.
Red flag laws allow law enforcement to seize semi-automatic assault rifles, high capacity magazines and ammunition. But not in El Paso County. Rep. Chris Murphy, R-Conn., said in a Dec. 27, 2022, interview on CNN that “60 percent of counties in this country are refusing to implement the nation’s gun laws.” Murphy was referring to the many counties around the nation that have adopted Second Amendment Sanctuary status, like the one in El Paso County. At least 37 Colorado counties have declared themselves sanctuaries, defying gun laws, and encouraging law enforcement not to file court orders for red flag protections or to enforce such laws as universal gun background checks, high capacity magazine bans and assault weapon bans. “We’re not going to pursue these (red flags) on our own,” said El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, “meaning the Sheriff’s Office is not going to run over and try to get a court order.” Michael Hall, a Republican district attorney in El Paso County, took a resolute and misleading stand. “This (red flag) law is a poor excuse to take people’s guns and is not designed in any way to address real concrete mental health concerns,” he wrote on Facebook. More than 300 sheriffs, mostly in Texas and other western states, have voiced strong opposition to enforcing gun laws like red flags. Many are involved with an organization called the “Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association,” formed in 2011 by former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, who is a former member of the Oath Keepers, a far right group implicated in the Jan. 5, 2021, attack on the capitol by trump supporters. The sheriff’s group contends that federal and state government authorities are subordinate to the local authority of county sheriffs. The group claims that its members include 300 of the 3,000 sheriffs in the U.S. The Anti-Defamation League calls Mack’s organization an “anti-government extremist group.” An Associated Press study of red flag laws in 19 states and the District of Columbia found the law has been used only about 15,000 times since 2020, less than 10 times for every 100,000 adults in each state.
Anderson Lee Aldrich has been charged with the carnage at the Club Q. But 18 months ago in El Paso County Aldrich allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, forcing neighbors in surrounding homes to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators talked him into surrendering. The red flag could have been instituted but it was not and Aldrich kept his weapons, including a semi-automatic assault rifle that he used last month to kill five people at Club Q.
El Paso is one of nearly 2,000 counties and states across the nation that have declared itself a “Second Amendment Sanctuary,” claiming they are immune from federal gun-safety laws they consider unconstitutional. Second Amendment Sanctuaries like El Paso believe that the red flag laws are an infringement on the right to bear arms and that law enforcement officers should not implement the law and “forcibly enter premises and seize a citizen’s property with no evidence of a crime.” Lake County, Ill., which includes Highland Park, is another second amendment sanctuary county. HIghland Park was the scene when 21-year-old Robert Crimo allegedly opened fire on the crowd at a July 4, 2022, parade, killing seven. Crimo had attempted suicide in April of 2019 and five months later police responded when he threatened to kill people in his home, leading them to temporarily confiscate 16 knives and other weapons. He also put out allegedly threatening social media messages. The red flag law was not implemented. In some states with red flag laws, petitions for removal of guns are not filed even in cases of violence. That includes Oregon where the state legislature enacted the law but did not provide funds for public education. The courts have rejected challenges to red flag laws and said that federal laws cannot be breached. And a 2019 poll by PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist Poll showed that 72 percent of Americans supported the enactment of a federal red flag law, while 23 percent were opposed. Regardless of public opinion and court rulings, thousands of jurisdictions have declared themselves immune from red flag laws and emergency protection orders and enforcement of gun background checks. The term “red flag” has meant various things but always it represents a warning. In the case of the law, it is warning that an individual may pose a danger to himself or others and should not have access to weapons. In politics, a red flag is usually a symbol of socialism, communism, Marxism, trade unions, left-wing politics, and historically of anarchism. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution of 1789–1799. Red flag, as in the law, has a left wing, political connotation to many on the right as being a threat to second amendment right to bear arms. Since President Joe Biden’s election, the number of state legislators proposing “Second Amendment Sanctuary” status has increased sharply.
A recent blog in Rustic Gorilla Press, noted that Second Amendment Sanctuary laws “are dangerous and unconstitutional. They circumvent the democratic system and the role of courts in determining the constitutionality of laws, while confusing citizens into thinking they are immune and that certain gun laws do not apply to them.”
Red flag laws have been enacted in 19 states including Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, New Mexico, Florida, California, Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Illinois, Nevada, Hawaii, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Many states have opposed red flag laws. In New Hampshire, for example, Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law on June 24, “prohibiting the state from enforcing any federal statute, regulation, or Presidential Executive Order that restricts or regulates the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed the Second Amendment Preservation Act on June 12, 2021, to “reject any attempt by the federal government to circumvent the fundamental right Missourians have to keep and bear arms to protect themselves and their property.” In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Second Amendment Sanctuary Act on June 16, 2021, prohibiting Texas agencies from assisting the federal government in enforcing federal gun-control laws passed after Jan. 19, 2021. This past June, Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill that authorizes state governments to receive federal funds if they enact and enforce red flag laws.
Federal efforts to pass national red flag laws have failed. In June, after the massacres in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas, the House passed the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021 bill which would have established a national red flag process for the federal district courts. The bill died after it was blocked in the Senate. Other state legislatures considered but did not pass red flag laws, including Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Michigan, Nebraska, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. In each case, Republican legislators blocked introduction of the law. Oklahoma became the first and only state to enact an anti-red flag law in May 2020. The law “prohibits the state or any city, county or political subdivision from enacting red flag laws.” In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice signed the Second Amendment Preservation and Anti-Federal Commandeering Act on April 27, 2021, barring police departments and officers from executing red flag laws or federal search warrants on firearms, accessories, or ammunition of “law abiding” persons. Second Amendment Sanctuary resolutions are not restricted to predominantly Republican red states. In New Jersey seven out of 21 counties, 25 townships, and five boroughs have adopted Second Amendment sanctuary (or other pro-Second Amendment) resolutions. Red flag laws differ but many, including the one in El Paso County, urge against law enforcement from applying for the risk based gun removal orders.
In Indiana and New Mexico, only law enforcement may petition for an order. In Oregon, any person living with the person of concern may file a petition. Connecticut was the first to enact a red flag law in 1999 after a 35-year-old accountant opened fire at the headquarters of the Connecticut state lottery, killing three top officials before chasing down and slaying the lottery’s president in a parking lot. He then fatally turned his automatic pistol on himself. The next state to adopt the law was Indiana, after Indianapolis Police Officer Jake Laird was shot and killed by a mentally disturbed man after police responded to numerous calls reporting gunfire. The man’s mental state might have been enough for authorities to seize his guns in advance of the shooting. But the red flag law was not exercised by authorities. The California State Legislature was the first to enact a red flag law allowing family members to petition state courts to remove weapons from persons deemed a threat after Elliot Rodger killed six people and turned the gun on himself in a mass shooting in the tony community of Isla Vista, adjacent to Santa Barbara in Southern California. Rodger was later found to have had a deeply troubled upbringing, often focusing his anger on women, potential indicators to warrant a red flag order. The California law permits law enforcement officials to petition the court for an order for the removal of guns from an individual for up to one year. The New York law allows police and family members, teachers and school administrations to petition for extreme risk protection orders. From 2008 to 2017, guns were used in 62 percent of suicides around the nation. A 2016 study published in the journal Law and Contemporary Problems determined that there was “one averted suicide for every 10 to 11 gun seizure cases.” And a 2018 study published in the journal Psychiatric Services utilized federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from all suicides in all 50 states from 1981–2015 and concluded that “Indiana’s firearm seizure law was associated with a 7.5 percent reduction in firearm suicides in the 10 years following its enactment. The Connecticut law was associated with a 1.6 percent reduction in firearm suicides immediately after its passage and a 13.7 percent reduction in firearm suicides in the post–Virginia Tech shooting period. Another study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that California’s red-flag law, as a form of “urgent, individualized intervention … can play a role in efforts to prevent mass shootings.”