GOP-controlled Senate examines red-flag laws, a form of gun control: NPR

A few days after three separate suicides in Parkland, Florida, and Newtown, Connecticut, communities have been shaken, the Senate is doing something rare for a House led by the GoP: holding an arms control hearing at fire. At the hearing previously scheduled, the Senate Judiciary Committee will gather experts at Capitol Hill Tuesday on extreme-risk protection orders, commonly known as "red flag" laws.

These laws allow law enforcement agencies and, in some states, relatives and other parties involved, to seize judges to temporarily restrict access to firearms from individuals who may be causing harm to individuals. themselves or to others.

Proponents of the laws say that they can save lives by removing guns from people who should not have them. At least one study shows that some states have used the laws to effectively protect individuals from suicide.

Opponents of such laws say that they violate the second amendment and say they do nothing to thwart the underlying problems at the root of the threat.

Tuesday's Senate hearing will focus on directives that a handful of states have used to enforce red flag laws, which President Lindsey Graham, RS.C, has announced will support at the federal level .

Graham told CNN earlier this month that he was considering the red flag measures as a "prevention", adding that he and President Trump had "definitely" talked about it.

Last year, Graham, along with Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Began working on legislation, but their efforts never became law.

Since the deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida, last year, eight states have passed their own extreme-risk laws. In total, 14 states have registered them. Colorado, where the bill is backed by a lawmaker who lost his son during the filming of Aurora in 2012, appears to be about to pass one of his own.

The hearing takes place at a time when red flag laws may spark renewed national interest. In recent days, two survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School have committed suicide.

On Monday, Jeremy Richman, whose daughter was killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was found dead in an alleged suicide.

Since taking control of the US House, Democrats have sought to make gun control a major platform of their government agenda.

At the start of the 2019 Congress, a bipartisan group of US Senators led by Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Reintroduced a bill that had been introduced for the first time in the weeks following the Parkland shootout.

The alleged armed man from Parkland, a former student who had received mental health treatment, legally purchased the firearm used in the attack.

Last month, the Democrat-led House approved two bills to expand the federal system of background checks. The bills are likely to be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Activists led by the March For Our Lives gun control group plan to hold demonstrations on Capitol Hill much of Tuesday to urge Senate legislators to pass a law on the extension of control antecedents.

The bill, introduced by Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Has 41 co-sponsors. None of them is Republican.

If you or someone you know is planning to commit suicide, contact National suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or Crisis text line texting the house at 741741.