{"id":95141,"date":"2019-03-13T19:29:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T01:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/red-flag-law-could-help-lower-suicide-rates\/"},"modified":"2019-03-13T19:29:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T01:29:13","slug":"red-flag-law-could-help-lower-suicide-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/red-flag-law-could-help-lower-suicide-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Red flag\u2019 law could help lower suicide rates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s controversial \u201cred flag\u201d gun bill, a measure that would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from those who may pose a threat, could help reduce the state\u2019s high number of suicides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do see red flag laws as a potentially very helpful strategy,\u201d said Ron Honberg, senior policy adviser with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.<\/a><\/p>\n

The vast majority of those with mental illness don\u2019t pose a great risk of harming others with a firearm, but many are at risk of suicide, he said.<\/p>\n

In 2016, 1,121 Coloradans died by suicide, and of those, 52 percent used a firearm, making it the most common lethal means used in the state, according to data collected by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment<\/a>. Those who use a firearm to attempt suicide are also far more likely to die than those who use other means.<\/p>\n

The law proposed in Colorado, House Bill 1177<\/a>, would allow law enforcement and family members to report someone as a threat and seek a court order to have that person\u2019s weapons seized. A weapon\u2019s seizure could be extended by a court for as many as 364 days.<\/p>\n

Connecticut was the first state to adopt a \u201cred flag\u201d law in 1999, and since then, 13 other states have adopted the laws, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

A 2017 study<\/a> that analyzed the effectiveness of Connecticut\u2019s law found the measures can be \u201cmodestly effective\u201d in preventing suicide. It also found 10 to 20 gun seizures were carried out for every averted suicide.<\/p>\n

A similar study released in 2018 found Connecticut\u2019s law reduced firearm-related suicides by 13.7 percent after 2007 and a law in Indiana reduced suicides by 7.5 percent over 10 years.<\/p>\n

The ability for family members to report someone as a threat is important for the law to be effective because family members would see the person believed to be a threat all the time, not just in crisis, as law enforcement might, Honberg said.<\/p>\n

The seizure of weapons should be followed by mental health treatment for it not be a superficial prevention strategy, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have to get at the core of it and address the factors that have given rise to suicidality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Honberg was not aware of any studies showing the effectiveness of \u201cred flag\u201d laws to prevent homicides.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith said he supported the proposed law because it could help law enforcement prevent homicides and suicides. Law enforcement officers often encounter suicidal residents who are crying out for help, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be a tool that law enforcement could use to help intervene and maybe save some of those lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smith said he has heard from a few residents who are concerned about the bill because it would allow family members to petition to have weapons taken away from an individual, and they felt that aspect of the bill could be abused.<\/p>\n

Smith said he encouraged those residents to contact their state senator, because the law is pending in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, said he was also concerned the bill could be abused by family members who simply don\u2019t like an individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to infringe on someone\u2019s Second Amendment rights, you better damn well have good reason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He is also concerned the bill wouldn\u2019t protect due process of those who have weapons seized and implementation could present a burden to rural courts.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Studies in Connecticut, Indiana show effectiveness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[150,668,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-firearms","tag-public-health","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95141"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}