Welcome back! Today we are evaluating goal number two of Joe Biden's gun control plan to combat the ever-important gun violence epidemic: to establish a national red flag law. Let's get into it!
A Red Flag law, also known as an Extreme Risk law, allow loved ones or law enforcement to get involved by petitioning a court for an order to prevent, temporarily, a person in crisis from obtaining access to a gun. A person in crisis can be defined as someone who is considering harming themselves or others. The law allows family members to intervene because they are often the first ones to recognize the warning signs of a person in crisis.
Currently, 22 states have implemented red flag laws including Extreme Risk Protection Orders in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Maryland, and Colorado. Nearly six out of every ten gun violence deaths in the US are suicides. Red Flag laws are believed to eliminate the possibility of frequent suicides, which contribute to over half of the gun violence deaths in America.
Establishing a national red flag law would require every state to uphold the provisions of the Extreme Risk laws, reducing the insistences of suicides. This in turn would significantly reduce the total American gun violence deaths, as suicides are the major contributer to gun deaths. States that currently have red flag laws in place are subject to less firearm related violence and have not been the location of any mass shootings.
Overall, Biden's goal of implementing a national red flag law would do wonders to address the contribution of deaths by suicide to the national gun violence deaths. It is a crucial step we must take to completely abolish the threat of gun violence as a nation, but it must make it through Congress first.
Let's all encourage our representatives to enact our will and pass Biden's national red flag law. It is a difficult, but necessary, next step.
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