GUN VIOLENCE
Gun violence is a public health crisis that claims over 100 American lives every day. It can strike in every corner, community, and household in our country. We must move beyond polarizing rhetoric, and thoughts and prayers, and take a whole-of-society approach to solving this deadly issue.
Gun Violence
Solutions and Key Components
▶ Reduce Easy and Immediate Access to Firearms
• Make background checks universal for all firearms sales and transfers.
• Close loopholes in the existing system and remove barriers preventing the reporting of criminal history records or persons prohibited from having guns for mental health reasons.
• Require state and federal agencies to share timely and reliable information with the national background check system, as well as all state and federal databases, immediately after an adjudication affecting the rights to legally purchase and possess a firearm. This must include any felony convictions, family violence convictions, emergency risk protective orders, or a mental health adjudication.
• Make the reporting of lost or stolen guns mandatory by firearms dealers and owners.
• Establish a national 7-days waiting periods for all firearms purchases and transfers, even for those with permits to carry firearms in public.
▶ Establish A Culture of Gun Safety
• Mandate graduated training and licensing programs with recurring education to renew permits for firearms owners that is at least as stringent as the process for obtaining a driver’s license.
• Require safe and secure gun storage. Criminal liability should be an option for prosecutors in cases where a firearm owner fails to secure a firearm and it is used in a crime with and without death or serious bodily injury.
• Repeal all gun industry immunity laws and hold the gun industry accountable to provide oversight of the marketing and sales of firearms and ammunition.
▶ Restrict Bulk Firearms Purchases and the Lethality of Individual Firearms
• Ban large-capacity magazines capable of carrying over 15 bullets.
• Ban any modifications, accessories, or attachments, that increase the rate of fire of a firearm to more closely resemble an automatic weapon.
• Limit the sales of multiple firearms bought through licensed dealers and private sellers to no more than one firearm per individual buyer per month.
▶ Strengthen Mental Health Infrastructure and Reporting Requirements
• Create a national Telemedicine Wellness Intervention and Referral program where children and young adults identified by school staff as a risk of injury or harm to themselves or others are referred to psychiatrists who perform an immediate, teleconferenced assessment and makes referrals to services and agencies as deemed appropriate.
• Make Behavior Threat Assessment and Mental Health First Aid training available and qualified for Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to all key professionals, educators, and human resources leaders to develop the skills to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and personal crisis.
• Subject intimates of a shooter who had concrete knowledge of the intent to commit violence beforehand to criminal liability if they were aware of an imminent threat of harm to self or others and did not report to law enforcement or petition for a restrictive order.
▶ Create a National Extreme Violence Protective Order or “Red Flag” Law
• If a judge deems the evidence that an individual is an imminent risk of harm to self or others and approves an Extreme Violence Protective Order, a legal mechanism to confiscate weapons already owned by the subject becomes an option for law enforcement.
• Judges will assess the case for the petition based on “probable cause” and “imminent risk,” or any other documented evidence that gives rise to a reasonable belief there is a propensity for violence or emotionally unstable conduct.
- Examples of probable cause: recent acts of violence, threatening acts of violence, or animal cruelty.
- Examples of imminent risk: reckless display or use of a gun, violent threats, abusive actions, or prior involuntary psychiatric confinement.
• Initial order for confiscation is valid for up to 14 days, during which the respondent is guaranteed a hearing before the judge and the confiscation is denied with the possessions returned to the respondent or upheld for a maximum of 180 days. The respondent must be allowed a follow-up hearing prior to the conclusion of all restrictive orders, which cannot be renewed in terms exceeding 180 days.
• While confiscation orders only apply to the subject of the petition, the homeowner or residents in the same household where the subject resides may be subject to criminal liability if it is found they were aware of the restrictive order but did not take appropriate precautions to prevent access to firearms from the subject of the order