“Red Flag” Laws Will Not Save Lives

By Jordan Stein

“Red Flag” Gun Confiscation Orders (GCOs), also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders, are an objectively ineffective proposal in the wake of mass public shootings. A study on the effectiveness of “Red Flag” GCOs, conducted in 2018 using data from 13 states for a combined total of 36 years, found that “Red Flag” Gun Confiscation Orders don’t reduce crime, don’t reduce suicides, don’t reduce murders, and don’t reduce mass murders. [1]
In fact, most mass shooters fall into one of two categories: (1) no “red flags” that something was wrong or (2) a governmental authority failed to act in any way, whether it be using ineffective “Red Flag” GCOs, the process of involuntary commitment for the mentally ill, or making a prosecutable arrest.
Some of the failures of “Red Flag” GCOs can be seen in recent high-profile shootings such as:

Buffalo, New York (2022), New York has the strongest “red flag” laws in the nation, allowing doctors to violate patient confidentiality to have guns seized. Police referred the future mass murderer for psychiatric evaluation. The law failed, he was not disarmed, and he went on to murder 10 in a grocery store a year later.[2]
Boulder, Colorado (2021), the future murderer displayed violent impulses,

Source: Gun Owners of America