WaPo: “After the carnage last week in Uvalde, Tex., with 19 elementary school students and two teachers dead, a bipartisan group of senators has been huddling to push a bill, even a minor one, over the 60-vote Senate filibuster hurdle. One conservative-endorsed proposal being weighed by Republicans could make a difference.
Known as a red-flag law, the measure allows the use of extreme-risk protection orders to temporarily remove or restrict firearms from people considered a threat to others or themselves. The policy, which is often misunderstood and typically underfunded, exists in D.C., and 19 states — including, surprisingly, Florida, sometimes called the “Gunshine State.”
“It can help take the gun out of someone’s hands before they do something terrible,” Detective Christopher Carita told me. He oversees extreme-risk protection order training for the Fort Lauderdale Police Threat Response Unit. “I’ve seen how they can prevent a mass shooting. The orders work.”
In 2018, Rick Scott — governor at the time, now a U.S. senator — defied fierce opposition from the National Rifle Association and signed a gun-control law that included a red-flag program. The signing came a few weeks after 17 people were shot to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The law also raised the minimum age for gun purchases to 21 and lengthened the waiting period.
Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — hardly known as a gun-control advocate — have introduced a red-flag bill in the Senate that would provide grants to help states implement the program. Senate Republicans aren’t keen to federalize the policy but don’t seem to mind sending money.
…In all, nearly 9,000 orders have been issued in Florida, some for potential suicides, and 2,845 were active as of last week, a relatively high rate. Still, some Florida counties have never issued a red flag.”