Over a three-year interval starting in 2021, 353 petitions have been filed below Colorado’s pink flag legislation, and 39% of these petitions led to firearms being relinquished, in accordance with analysis our group printed in Preventive Drugs Studies.
Purple flag legal guidelines are also called excessive danger safety orders. These orders briefly bar people deemed by a choose to be prone to violence from shopping for or possessing firearms.
We discovered that 54.6% of petitions throughout Colorado have been filed by legislation enforcement. These petitions have been granted 94.3% of the time.
Petitions filed by individuals outdoors of legislation enforcement have been granted simply 35% of the time.
When the petitions of both kind usually are not granted, the people concerned are allowed to maintain their firearms.
Thirty-seven % of all petitions in Colorado between 2020 and 2022 have been filed in counties that made proclamations towards pink flag legal guidelines, calling themselves “Second Modification sanctuaries.”
The title Second Modification sanctuaries is modeled after the time period “sanctuary cities,” a time period utilized by native governments taking a stand towards immigration enforcement.
These declarations are meant to ship a political message towards excessive danger safety orders. Supporters of the declarations are expressing considerations that the legal guidelines violate the U.S. Structure, subvert due course of and undermine residents’ potential to guard themselves. Nevertheless, anecdotes have highlighted circumstances the place protecting orders have been sought and granted in lots of the 37 sanctuaries. Our research supplies knowledge to again up these anecdotes.
In Colorado, fewer petitions are granted in sanctuaries probably as a result of the share of orders filed by police is considerably decrease. However pink flag legal guidelines are nonetheless getting used – with some notable variations.
The petitions filed and granted in sanctuary jurisdictions are extra severe than these filed in nonsanctuaries. Almost 1 in 5 concerned a shooter threatening to kill at the very least three different individuals along with themselves. Greater than 90% included threats to shoot particular individuals corresponding to members of the family, companions or legislation enforcement officers.
In lots of of those circumstances, the sense of hazard was heightened as a result of the individual was reportedly experiencing hallucinations, had a historical past of contact with the police or was misusing medication or alcohol.
Provided that 60% of firearm deaths are suicides, we have been stunned that simply 8% of the petitions included solely threats of self-harm.
Why it issues
Whereas pink flag legal guidelines present promise as a option to forestall firearm suicides and different violence in the 21 states plus D.C. the place they’re in impact, at the very least 1,200 jurisdictions throughout the U.S. have made political declarations towards their use.
When Colorado handed the Deputy Zackari Parrish Violence Prevention Act in 2018, it instantly sparked controversy. The legislation went into impact on Jan. 1, 2020. It initially allowed solely sure individuals to file petitions: legislation enforcement officers, plus kinfolk, roommates and co-parents of the respondent. In 2023, it was expanded to permit well being care and behavioral well being professionals, educators and district attorneys to petition.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Photographs
How we did our work
Our group on the College of Colorado Faculty of Drugs’s Firearm Damage Prevention Initiative has been gathering petitions and court docket paperwork related to each excessive danger petition filed in Colorado since they grew to become accessible.
This allowed us to describe the sorts of circumstances the place the danger of violence was seen as so extreme that filings have been made. The legislation shouldn’t be express, so this threshold has been fuzzy – leaving lots of discretion to judges. Our knowledge helps shade in when a petition is more likely to be introduced and when it’s more likely to be accredited.
We have been additionally capable of evaluate the usage of excessive danger petitions in sanctuary counties with their use in different counties.
What nonetheless isn’t identified
The usage of excessive danger petitions in counties the place they’re politically unpopular raises additional questions. For instance, do judges in sanctuary counties set the next bar for granting a petition than in different jurisdictions? Does a sanctuary designation discourage legislation enforcement from submitting petitions even after they have benefit?
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