As we mourn the dead and wounded at the school shooting at the church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we must ask ourselves what could be done. For years, some answered nothing. Suddenly, everyone seems to have a solution. No law would stop every shooting, of course, but is it possible our gun death rate might be closer to those of other developed countries which have taken steps to dramatically and effectively lower gun violence without completely banning guns.
Sean Hannity said that schools should have metal detectors. I can see that as a good idea, though the Minneapolis shooter shot outside the school, into a church.
Another news guest had this to suggest: “I’m about to launch America’s first-ever AI threat detection platform built for law enforcement. It scrapes the internet 24/7 using Israeli-grade ontology.” Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the same grade ontology that failed to uncovered the Gaza Attack, a much larger scope of attack than a school shooting, where there was no shortage of warnings online and those on the front lines claiming something was going to happen.
Recently, I was on WCNY, a guest on former GOP Congressman John Katko’s show. Titled “Balancing Act,” the show provides a more centrist view, and allows multiple viewpoints. I debated the VP and head of Legal Studies at the Cato Institute. We discussed whether red flag laws like Florida’s would work for reducing gun violence.
Red flag laws involve Extreme Risk Protective Orders (ERPOs), which “temporarily prohibit a person who poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to oneself or others” from possessing firearms. That comes from the National ERPO Resource Center. States vary on who can file an ERPO. In Florida, for example, only law enforcement agencies can request such an ERPO for a judge to consider. It would limit the purchase of firearms and ammo for a short period of time.
I looked at the Centers for Disease Control Firearm Mortality dataset from 2023 on gun death rates to see whether states with red flag laws had higher or lower firearm mortality rates.
Or do the states with ERPOs differ little in gun death rates with those that did not have such a law?
Of the seven states with the lowest category of firearm death rates, six of them — Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island) — had red flag laws. Only New Hampshire was in the lowest category of gun deaths and did not have an ERPO law.
Of the 12 states which have ratings of high or highest gun death rates on the CDC website, eleven of them did not have an ERPO: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Only New Mexico had an ERPO, passed in 2020, and was among the highest gun death rates.
This approach allows people who want a gun to purchase one. Florida is second in the country in gun sales, with an ERPO. California, which has an ERPO, is third. Virginia with its ERPO has higher gun sales than Alabama and Georgia, which do not. Michigan, with a red flag law, has higher gun sales than Arizona, which does not. Indiana, with its ERPO, has higher gun sales than South Carolina, which does not have a red flag law.
(Gun sales data comes from safehome.org)
In my city of LaGrange, Georgia, Remington Arms employs 850 people and has an investment of $100 million, and I don’t want to see that go.
Gun deaths will still occur if we implement a national red flag law. But it seems we would have fewer of them should such laws remove firearms from those judged by the judicial system to be a threat to themselves and others.
It may be a start for reducing gun violence in the USA and limiting such school shootings.