Red Flag law sought to take guns from dangerous people

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — When a shooting happens, the aftermath often includes questions about why warning signs about the shooter did not lead to authorities taking his or her gun away before anyone was hurt.

The on campus murder of a University of Arizona professor is just part of the reason local leaders cite for the need for stronger laws to get guns away from dangerous people.

An expelled graduate student is charged with shooting and killing Professor Thomas Meixner in October of 2022. Faculty members say the man made a series of serious threats long before the shooting.

Local leaders are making a fresh push for a Red Flag law that would make it easier to take someone’s gun if a judge agrees that person’s a threat.

County attorney Laura Conover, County Supervisor Rex Scott and representative Nancy Gutierrez have teamed up for the effort.

I asked how they hope to pass new gun laws when the legislature has a Republican majority with a history of opposing them.

Nancy Gutierez says, “The thing that we can do is flip our legislature because there is no willingness. I ask, I always ask, I speak with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and there is absolutely no appetite for them to work with us on this gun sense legislation. None.”

These leaders hope to repeal a state law that prevents local governments from passing gun laws tougher than state law, and pass a county ordinance requiring gun owners to report when a gun is lost or stolen.

Two gunmen kidnapped and killed Jasmin Gaxiola. She was 14 years old. Her mother Carol spent 15 years helping other families of other victims through their grief, first as a volunteer, then as the director of Homicide Survivors.

She hoped no other family would feel what she had to feel.

“But then reality sets in, and this gun violence has become normalized throughout my lifetime as a chosen response to resolve problems. but the reality is a gun rarely results in most often opens hundreds of other problems within the situation.”

And while gun advocates say tougher gun laws clash with the Second Amendment, gun control advocates say guns should be harder for troubled people to get.