Bill would limit firearm access
‘Red flag’ law revises risk warrants
Connecticut’s “red flag” law is close to getting what Democrats see as critical updates for firearm safety.
This proposed revision to the current risk warrant law is the single biggest legislation raised on firearms this session, said State Rep. Steve Stafsrom, DBridgeport, who chairs the Judiciary Committee.
“While the (risk warrant) measure has helped to prevent hundreds of unnecessary deaths, there are clear vulnerabilities in the existing statute,” he said.
The bill being sent to the state House addresses who can seek a risk warrant, how long they stay in effect and prevents those potentially posing a risk from acquiring new firearms while the warrant stands.
With any discussion around firearms, House Majority Leader Jason Rojas said it’s always brought to the caucuses to discuss, but so far everything points to the bill getting the support it needs to pass.
“I think it’s good policy,” he said.
The Judiciary Committee passed the new version out of committee with a 27-11 vote of approval, but not without concern from some legislators.
Ranking member state Rep. Craig Fishbein, RWallingford, who voted against the bill, said most of his Republican colleagues agree that the state already addresses the concerns around firearm safety and at-risk individuals through the current law.
“The question becomes what is wrong with the current system,” he said. “Not a lot of answers to that other than the general ‘it doesn’t go far enough.’ Well, that’s not a good way to legislate.”
Connecticut’s Legislature created the “red flag” law after the CT Lottery shooting as a measure to remove firearms from a person who is an imminent risk to themselves and others. It’s often invoked in domestic violence situations or with people who are at risk for suicide.
Following Connecticut, more than a dozen other states adopted a version of the law, but went further with protections than Connecticut did, said Stafstrom, who raised the new
“The biggest problem was it (the current warrant) didn’t prevent that person getting a new gun. It’s really going to close that loophole and stop domestic abusers or anyone who is a risk to themselves during a risk protection order.”
State Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport
bill initially in 2019.
The changes that will be under consideration by the House include preventing a person who is a risk from purchasing firearms and ammunition, even if they don’t possess them when the warrant is sought, and disallowing them from purchasing new guns while the warrant is in effect.
Additionally, the update extends the amount of time the warrant stays in effect to longer than a year and adds a provision by which a person can petition to get their firearms back sooner if they show they’re not a risk anymore.
State Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, supported the bill as one of several gun safety reforms this session.
“The biggest problem was it (the current warrant) didn’t prevent that person getting a new gun,” Haskell said. “It’s really going to close that loophole and stop domestic abusers or anyone who is a risk to themselves during a risk protection order.”
Research has shown that possession of a firearm in domestic abuse situations increases the risk for homicide five times and historically firearms are the most common weapon used on intimate partner deaths.
The other bills Haskell raised weren’t taken up by the Judiciary Committee this session, but included one that would limit gun sales to one weapon per month and another aimed at firearm thefts from vehicles
that would require guns be locked in a safe secured to the vehicle.
Haskell said he hopes the risk warrant bill gets called for a vote soon and looks forward to supporting it again.
“It’s decades overdue,” he said.
The new bill also expands who can seek a warrant from a judge to include family or household members and licensed medical professionals. Under the current law, a risk warrant — or firearm safety warrant — can only be sought at the discretion of a state’s attorney or two police officers.
“Certainly someone living with an individual or a medical provider may have much better firsthand knowledge whether someone is an imminent risk to themselves or others than a police officer or state’s attorney does,” Stafstrom said.
State Rep. Greg Howard, R-North Stonington, a committee member and working police officer, said the bill creates a pathway to inadvertently circumvent a police officer’s ability under current law to take an individual to a hospital for evaluation.
“It doesn’t prohibit it, but could potentially circumvent it,” he said, voting against the bill and asking for more work to be done on it before lending his support.
Rojas said he believes that rather than the bill cutting out law enforcement from investigating dangerous situations, it will help give police more information when they go into a situation.
According to a recent Hearst Connecticut Media investigation, 2,056 people in Connecticut died from gunshots between January 2010 and August 2020.
The investigation chronicling 10 years of gun deaths found that among state residents who died from gunfire over the last decade, suicides accounted for 58 percent of those deaths and suicides by gun became more prevalent as residents aged — more than 90 percent of the gun deaths among those in their 70s and 80s were suicides.
It also found 73 percent of those who died by firearm in their 40s died by suicide; 82 percent of those in their 50s; 90 percent of those in their 60s and 70s; and 95 percent of those in their 80s.