19 states have passed ‘red flag’ gun laws. Why NC may resist Biden’s plea.

A North Carolina bill allowing courts to temporarily seize firearms from people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others was filed Thursday, hours after President Joe Biden recommended states adopt laws to reduce gun violence.

But if history is any guide, Democrats will have a hard time passing such “red flag” bills in North Carolina.

Three of them, Reps. Marcia Morey of Durham, John Autry, of Charlotte, and Grier Martin, of Wake County, filed House Bill 525 Thursday just before 4 p.m. The 10-page proposal outlines a process for “an extreme risk protection order” that a family member, a current or former spouse or partner, law enforcement or a health-care provider could pursue to have guns temporarily removed from someone who courts deemed a danger.

Around noon Thursday Biden outlined steps his administration plans to take immediately and actions he would like to take going forward to address gun violence that kills about 106 people per day in the United States and harms about 316.

The immediate steps included publishing model legislation for states wanting a red flag law.

Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have adopted similar legislation, Biden said.

But similar bills haven’t been successful in North Carolina, where Republicans control the legislature. State Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican, said that’s because North Carolina voters elected folks who prioritize protecting Second Amendment rights.

Red flag legislation, sometimes called gun-violence restraining orders or extreme risk protection orders, was introduced in 2018 and 2019 in North Carolina, but wasn’t adopted.

Britt said he is against taking away firearms “without a substantial amount of due process.”

The system already bars some people with a history of mental illness from having a gun, he said.

“As far as taking people’s gun that they already have without a judicial determination that the person is mentally incompetent, I would be extremely opposed,” he said.

Common-sense gun legislation?

Morey pointed out that other states, including ones with Republican majorities, have passed legislation.

“I think the president coming out today strongly supporting this measure is a change, and I thinks it’s just a common-sense piece of legislation that needs to be understood and heard,” Morey said.

The process would be similar to obtaining a domestic violence protection order, Morey said. Under that process, someone may initially petition for protection against another person, without the participation of that person, for a temporary order that could be extended after additional hearings in which all parties participate.

Paul Valone, president of gun rights advocacy group Grass Roots North Carolina, said that red flag laws deprive people of their civil rights without appropriate due process of law.

Valone said he also had concerns about people whose guns are taken away without them being notified or participating in the initial process. This and other proposals by Biden and his administration are steps to begin the “incremental disarmament of the civil population in contradiction to the Second Amendment,” he said.

A UNC School of Government blog indicated it’s doubtful that most red flag laws violate the Second Amendment.

“Obviously, the more protective a red flag law is of respondents’ rights, the more likely it will be to survive Second Amendment scrutiny,” wrote Jeff Welty on the blog. “But the limited case law that we have so far suggests that many red flag laws will be deemed constitutional.”

Prosecutors, law enforcement

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said she supports red flag legislation because it will help address delays and gaps in mental-health services.

Wake County prosecutors often see situations in which law enforcement is aware that somebody is having a mental health crisis and have made threats of violence, but there are no tools to ensure that person doesn’t have access to weapons while the person is connected to mental health services, Freeman said.

“It’s just basically a time out,” Freeman said. “Let’s just take a pause here and allow authorities and medical providers to get their hands on a situation to assess a risk of mass violence or violence to one’s self or violence to another person.”

Once the appropriate safeguards are in place, she said, a judge can then return the firearms.

Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry said in a statement that red flag laws and community-based violence intervention programs are targeted solutions with proven records of success.

“At the District Attorney’s Office, we understand how domestic violence can escalate and turn fatal,” she said. “The presence of a firearm in a home experiencing domestic violence significantly increases a victim’s risk of being killed. Red flag laws can be a life-saving intervention in these situations.”

Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead is also a supporter of the legislation and will continue to work with Morey to move it forward, he said in a statement.

“I have always been a supporter of responsible gun ownership,” he wrote.

‘This is an epidemic’

Biden’s Thursday announcement was his first significant presidential action on guns as the nation has dealt with multiple mass shootings in recent weeks.

Some other steps the Biden administration plans to take include:

▪ Require so called “ghost guns,” guns made from a complete or almost complete kit, to have serial numbers and require licensed firearm dealers to run background checks before selling them.

▪ Release an annual report on firearms trafficking in America. The last report was in 2000.

▪ Subject pistols modified with stabilizing braces — which effectively turn the pistol into a short-barreled rifle, Biden said — to the National Firearms Act, which would require a potential owner to register them with federal officials.

Those and other proposed changes will help the country address gun violence, Biden said, which he described as “a public health crisis.”

“Our flag was still flying at half staff for the victims of the horrific murder of eight primarily Asian American people in Georgia, when 10 more lives were taken in a mass murder in Colorado,” Biden said.

Between those incidents, which were less than a week apart, there were more than 850 additional shootings that took the lives of 250 people and left 500 injured, Biden said.

“This is an epidemic, for God’s sake,” Biden said. “And it has to stop.”

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