Sheriffs Who Denounced Colorado’s Red Flag Law Are Now Using It

Dolores County Sheriff Don Wilson by no means anticipated to make use of Colorado’s pink flag legislation when it was handed in 2019. He thought the legislation made it too straightforward to take an individual’s weapons away.

The statute permits legislation enforcement officers or personal residents to petition a county court docket to confiscate firearms briefly from individuals who pose an imminent risk to themselves or others.

“All it’s is one individual’s phrase in opposition to one other,” mentioned Wilson, whose sparsely populated territory is in southwestern Colorado close to the Utah border.

Then, in August 2020, a Dove Creek man threatening to kill his neighbors and himself pointed a semiautomatic rifle at a deputy. Wilson petitioned for and was granted an excessive danger safety order to take away the person’s weapons, although the sheriff mentioned his distrust of the pink flag legislation has not modified.

“If a gentleman pulls a rifle on my deputy after which comes and threatens to shoot up my courthouse and kill me, kill the judges, and kill the district lawyer,” Wilson mentioned, “I’ve received an issue with that individual having a gun.”

The Uvalde, Texas, faculty capturing prompted a bipartisan gun management settlement in Congress that might present funding to encourage extra states to move pink flag legal guidelines. However in response to conservative objections, the invoice Congress handed included funding for disaster intervention to states whether or not or not they set up pink flag legal guidelines.

Related opposition was seen in Colorado, the place Dolores County and a minimum of 36 different counties declared themselves “Second Modification sanctuaries” after the pink flag legislation was launched.

However 2½ years later, these declarations seem to have had little impact on whether or not safety orders based mostly on the legislation are filed or enforced. Petitions for defense orders have been filed in 20 of the 37 sanctuary counties, usually by the very sheriffs who had beforehand denounced the legislation, in response to a KHN evaluation of the petitions obtained by county-by-county public data requests.

“These are sheriffs and legislation enforcement who have been initially saying, ‘We would like nothing to do with this legislation,’” mentioned Lisa Geller, state affairs adviser for the Johns Hopkins Heart for Gun Violence Options. “However in observe, they’re utilizing it, and this isn’t one thing that’s distinctive to Colorado. Legislation enforcement ended up realizing, ‘Hey, that is the very best software now we have to guard ourselves.’”

Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have applied some type of pink flag legislation whereas, in response to the web site SanctuaryCounties.com, greater than 62% of U.S. counties at the moment are lined by both state or county Second Modification sanctuary resolutions.

Analysis exhibits pink flag legal guidelines save lives. Duke College researchers discovered that for each 10 gun removals, one demise is prevented. An evaluation from the College of Indianapolis discovered comparable reductions in suicide charges after pink flag legal guidelines have been handed in Connecticut and Indiana.

One other evaluation, by researchers with the Harm & Violence Prevention Heart on the Colorado College of Public Well being, discovered that within the first 12 months of the Colorado pink flag legislation, 85% of safety orders granted by judges had been filed by legislation enforcement.

“Loads of that’s as a result of the legislation enforcement petitions might have been extra full,” mentioned Dr. Marian Betz, an epidemiologist and deputy director of the middle. “That they had the data that judges wanted to maneuver ahead with it.”

Research in California, Oregon, and Washington state additionally discovered nearly all of petitions are filed by legislation enforcement. Though California’s pink flag legislation has been in impact for greater than 5 years, two-thirds of the Californians in a 2020 survey had by no means heard of it.

Betz and her workforce discovered the identical hurdle in Colorado. “I hope there shall be some enchancment in consciousness and training, each for the general public and in addition for legislation enforcement,” she mentioned, “making it simpler for individuals to grasp how they work and whenever you may need to get one and the way you’d try this.”

In Colorado counties the place sheriffs have declined to make use of the pink flag legislation, safety orders have been filed by different legislation enforcement companies. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams has been one of many extra vocal critics of the legislation and made nationwide information saying he’d moderately go to jail than implement it. Nonetheless, 12 petitions have been filed in Weld County, together with two by municipal police departments.

“My stance continues to be the identical,” Reams mentioned. “Certainly not am I going to take somebody’s weapons in violation of their constitutional rights.”

Reams describes the legislation as “shallow” and doing nothing to deal with the psychological points which may contribute to violence. “Our purpose is to deal with the individual and check out to determine find out how to get the individual the assistance they want,” he mentioned.

The method for residents to file excessive danger safety order petitions may be difficult. Lots of these reviewed by KHN confirmed filers didn’t perceive the pink flag legislation, together with one petition that was filed within the mistaken county.

Different petitions filed by residents have been clearly outdoors the intent of the legislation.

Prisoners in county jails filed petitions in opposition to their sheriff jailers, together with one who accused the sheriff of slavery. A Larimer County girl falsely claimed she had a toddler in widespread with a police officer in a bid to have his weapons taken away.

However judges rejected all these petitions, bolstering supporters’ argument that protections in opposition to misuse are constructed into the legislation.

“We documented the uncommon few instances of individuals misusing the legislation, however these petitions weren’t allowed,” mentioned Betz, the Colorado epidemiologist. “That exhibits that the system labored.”

Throughout the debate over the Colorado invoice, opponents argued that the legislation would enable vindictive individuals to take weapons away from others for no good purpose.

“We’re simply actually not seeing that,” mentioned Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle. “What we’re seeing is that legislation enforcement has a software to make use of in instances the place somebody is actually a danger to themselves or others and shouldn’t have a firearm.”

Even earlier than the Colorado legislation was handed in 2019, Alamosa County’s Board of County Commissioners handed a Second Modification sanctuary decision reinforcing the county’s dedication to the fitting to bear arms. Afterward, Sheriff Robert Jackson issued an announcement in assist of the decision, saying the pink flag invoice lacked due course of, didn’t tackle psychological well being issues, and would put his deputies at elevated danger.

Since then, Alamosa County judges have granted two petitions below the legislation, one from the county sheriff’s workplace and one from the Alamosa Police Division.

Jackson mentioned his concern was over the power of personal residents to file for defense orders. Legislation enforcement, he mentioned, recordsdata solely after wanting into the information.

“Judges typically aren’t actually good at investigating stuff,” he mentioned.

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, probably the most outspoken proponents of the Colorado legislation, mentioned his workplace filed 4 protecting orders within the first 12 months of the legislation.

“More often than not when now we have individuals who have excessive psychological well being crises, sadly, there’s an end result of both suicide or murder,” he mentioned. “The 4 instances that we’ve achieved, all 4 of these people are alive as we speak and are productive members of our society and are working towards a more healthy life.”

Spurlock mentioned many sheriffs nonetheless refuse to utilize a legislation that’s saved lives. He mentioned he has requested a few of them pointed questions on what it means to be a Second Modification sanctuary, equivalent to whether or not armed robbers and rapists are entitled to weapons.

“Then they get pissed at me,” Spurlock mentioned. “My variety of mates is dwindling.”

KHN reporter Jacob Owens contributed to this text.