Bismarck – In the hopes of preventing terror at schools or harm to themselves, one state lawmaker is hoping new legislation would grant a judge the power to confiscate a firearm from someone who is deemed a threat to themselves or others.

State Lawmaker Karla Rose Hanson is hoping North Dakota can become the 14th US state to pass, so-called Red-flag legislation. If passed, the bill would allow family members or law enforcement to petition a judge for a public safety protection order, which would forbid that individual from owning or buying a gun for a year.

“And how it works is they would present facts. There would be a hearing. A judge would review the facts and see if it met the standard of evidence required. It’s the strongest standard of evidence available in civil court, which is called clear and convincing evidence. If the judge felt it met that level, then he or she could issue a public safety protection order for up to one year,” said Hanson.

She tells KX News one of the goals of the bill is to prevent mass casualty incidents like the ones this past year in Thousand Oaks, California, Parkland ,Florida and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact, North Dakota is one of the few states to not have a mass school shooting.

“We’ve been very lucky not to have ever had a school shooting in North Dakota. A lot of states have enacted this legislation AFTER a tragedy, after the horror or seeing a school go through a school shooting. So I would like to see this added to be another tool in the tool box,” said Hanson.
 
One of the other goals of the bill is to remove guns from individuals that may be suicidal. Alison Traynor is a suicide prevention officer for the North Dakota Department of health and tells KX News North Dakota has one of the highest suicide rates in the country.

“We actually rank the 12th, but we are ranked number one in suicide death rate increases so we’ve actually experienced a 57-percent death rate increase since 1999,” said Traynor.

The Bismarck Police department tells KX News they responded to 57 suicide attempts in 2017. 18 of those attempts, resulted in death in 2017, a 100% increase over 2016.  

Despite bipartisan support, not everyone is sold on the bill. One of those is Representative Rick Becker.

“One of the biggest concerns is that it’s based on hearsay. It could be an ex-girlfriend or an ex-husband that makes an accusation. There’s a whole array of things that just makes this bill untenable. The intentions are good. There’s no doubt, but a lot of times there’s bad law made from good intentions,” said Becker.

Becker adds recent studies overseas show similar bills do nothing to decrease the suicide rate and also adds taking someone’s gun doesn’t mean they won’t commit a similar violent act with a knife or other weapon.  

The bill is currently supported by The State Association of School Resource Officers and the Department of Public Instruction.  

Representative Hanson hopes the bill will be signed into law by the end of the session, but so far a hearing on the legislation has not been scheduled.