Is there any reason to think that background checks or "Extreme risk protection orders," authorized by so-called red flag laws, will accomplish that task better than "Experienced psychiatrists"?
Since past violence is a good predictor of future violence, there is a rational basis for background checks that focus on people convicted of violent crimes, although the significance of such records declines over time.
Red flag laws aim to identify people who pose a threat to themselves or others but are not already disqualified from gun ownership.
What about the rest? Based on the track record of red flag laws in Connecticut and Indiana, I'd guess most or all of them involved people who were deemed suicidal.
Even the most generous estimates, based on a method that may not be reliable, suggest that 90 to 95 percent of people who lose their Second Amendment rights under red flag laws because they are deemed a threat to themselves would not actually have committed suicide.
The other side of the coin is that red flag laws do not necessarily identify people who are in fact bent on violence.
As the Times notes, red flag laws "Depend on people to call the authorities about someone before they act," and "Many mass shooters are never reported."
https://reason.com/2019/08/09/the-puzzle-of-identifying-future-mass-murderers-cannot-be-solved-by-psychiatry-background-checks-or-red-flag-laws/
Since past violence is a good predictor of future violence, there is a rational basis for background checks that focus on people convicted of violent crimes, although the significance of such records declines over time.
Red flag laws aim to identify people who pose a threat to themselves or others but are not already disqualified from gun ownership.
What about the rest? Based on the track record of red flag laws in Connecticut and Indiana, I'd guess most or all of them involved people who were deemed suicidal.
Even the most generous estimates, based on a method that may not be reliable, suggest that 90 to 95 percent of people who lose their Second Amendment rights under red flag laws because they are deemed a threat to themselves would not actually have committed suicide.
The other side of the coin is that red flag laws do not necessarily identify people who are in fact bent on violence.
As the Times notes, red flag laws "Depend on people to call the authorities about someone before they act," and "Many mass shooters are never reported."
https://reason.com/2019/08/09/the-puzzle-of-identifying-future-mass-murderers-cannot-be-solved-by-psychiatry-background-checks-or-red-flag-laws/
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