Bipartisan bill would take guns from possibly violent

WASHINGTON — Senators from both parties are proposing to let federal courts keep guns away from people who show warning signs of violence in response to the deadly school shooting in Florida.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday their bill is a common-sense proposal to save lives. At a news conference, Graham said the government encourages people who see something suspicious to “say something” to authorities.

He asked, “Isn’t it incumbent on government to do something” to prevent gun violence?

The bill is modeled on state “red flag laws” that let officials take guns away from people who are judged to pose an imminent danger to themselves or others. A federal law would fill gaps in state laws, Graham said, noting that only a handful of states allow gun-violence restraining orders.

“Guns and shooters cross borders,” Blumenthal said. “That’s why a federal solution is important.” A federal red-flag law “will save lives,” he said.

Police and the FBI received numerous warnings about the accused Florida shooter but did not move to take away his guns.

Graham and Blumenthal said they were motivated not just by the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, but also by high-profile shootings in their home states — a 2015 massacre at a Charleston, South Carolina, church that killed nine people and a 2012 shooting that killed 20 school children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut.

“I’m 62 years old. I’m tired of going home and telling people we just can’t do anything,” Graham said.