Local lawmakers introduce new red flag firearm seizure bill
North Dakota is taking a step forward in terms of preventing gun violence. A coalition led by a Fargo legislator is advocating for legislation that would save lives by temporarily keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals. My first question about this was, what do they mean by temporary? Is it like a privilege that needs to be earned and can be taken away when signs of danger appear? Well, according to them, that’s essentially what it’s going to be like.
Rep. Karla Rose Hanson is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1537, which would establish Public Safety Protection Orders. The legislation is known as a “red flag” law. That’s pretty self-explanatory. “Public Safety Protection Orders save lives by enabling people to act before warning signs escalate into tragedies,” Hanson said. “This process enables them to petition a court to remove guns from a dangerous situation — preventing suicides, reducing peril for victims and officers during domestic violence calls and averting school shootings and other mass shootings.”
It’d be obvious, to say the least, that this bill is a flagrant violation of the Second Amendment.
The goal of this law would be to reduce gun violence while still allowing people to own firearms. While this should be the goal when it comes to gun violence, I’m not so sure how that’s going to work. The bill says: “If there is strong evidence that the individual poses a threat or imminent danger to themselves or others, the order temporarily prohibits someone from possessing or buying a firearm. There is robust due process at every step.” I ask myself what this process will be.
Say someone can’t purchase a firearm due to past suspicious activity. Is there a grace period of time in which they have to earn their right back? If that’s the case, who’s to say they won’t go buy a firearm right away and use it for illegal purposes? You can hope they learned their lesson and that everything will be fine, but you can’t really be certain that will happen.
House Bill 1537 is nothing more than an attempt to put a stranglehold on the Second Amendment for North Dakotans.
This bill is also being passed to help with suicide prevention. This is an issue that needed to be addressed, and I’m glad measures are being taken to help prevent it. Hanson pointed to the high suicide rate in North Dakota as one of the problems this bill will address. “Since a suicidal person may have to wait to get initial behavioral health services and since therapy and medication take time to take effect, this can put some time and distance between that person and lethal means while they get help,” Hanson said.
This is a really good point and a strong argument in favor of passing the bill. This will allow suicidal people to complete their therapy and give them time for their medication to come into effect. Hanson also said studies in other states say this law will help reduce suicides. I think these studies back the bill up and are necessary to know that it will be effective.
“Since a suicidal person may have to wait to get initial behavioral health services and since therapy and medication take time to take effect, this can put some time and distance between that person and lethal means while they get help,” Hanson said. This a really good point and a strong argument in favor of passing the bill. This will allow suicidal people to complete their therapy and give them time for their medication to come into effect. Hanson also said studies in other states say this law will help reduce suicides. I think these studies back the bill up and are necessary to know that it will be effective.
Officers will be protected from this bill on top of everything. “Public Safety Protection Orders would help us avert active shooter situations and prevent suicides. They would also be an additional tool for domestic violence calls, which can be the most dangerous for officers,” West Fargo Police Chief Heith Janke said. “It fills several gaps we have today in those scenarios.”
It’s very important that our officers can be protected from dangerous situations as much as possible. It’s unfair for officers to be killed by people who don’t use firearms properly. As important as it is to tackle the issue of gun violence, it’s also significant to protect the people that enforce the laws.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 40,000 people died from firearm injuries in the United States in 2017, the highest yearly total on record. That averages more than 109 deaths per day; nearly two-thirds were suicides. There were 103 deaths by firearm in North Dakota in 2017; 93 of those were suicides. This is why the significance of this bill is so great. It’s good to see real issues addressed through a bill that fills nearly all the gaps. I really hope the number of deaths by firearm become reduced because of this bill, especially the suicides.