Wyoming has the highest rate of gun suicide in the country. Lawmakers there, and in similarly afflicted states, have blocked red flag laws, which studies have found to be a useful preventative measure, the Trace reports. According to coroner, James Whipp, 18 of the 24 suicides were carried out with a firearm, a slice of a statewide trend. Last year, 75 percent of suicides in Wyoming involved guns, and the state had the highest gun suicide rate in the country. Yet in March, Wyoming, under single-party Republican control, enacted a law to expressly ban red flag statutes, which have been adopted in 21 states. Red flag laws allow family members and law enforcement officials to go before a judge and make the case that a person should be temporarily disarmed because they pose an imminent risk to themself or others. Not that long ago, red flag laws were widely touted as a bipartisan solution to gun violence. Both Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association had endorsed them. But then the laws became a centerpiece of reform for the Biden administration, and a backlash from Second Amendment groups and the far-right ensued.
Since 2020, four Republican-controlled states, including Wyoming, have implemented a prohibition on such laws. The other three — Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Tennessee — are also consistently among the states with the highest gun suicide rates in the country, according to data provided by Cassandra Crifasi, an epidemiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. For red flag opponents, banning or fighting the statutes has been embraced as a righteous cause. There are false claims of rampant misuse and supposed violations of due process and the Second Amendment. The fight over red flag laws is undergirded by political tribalism. Before West Virginia instituted its red flag prohibition, documents acquired through a public records request show that state delegates received auto-generated emails with the subject line “OPPOSE RED FLAG GUNS LAWS.” This year, Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, announced the formation of a red flag resource center, which would be housed within the Department of Justice and help states, municipalities, and law enforcement make the most of the statutes. In response, the state Attorney General’s Office in West Virginia spearheaded an effort to undermine the initiative. It wrote a letter of protest to Merrick Garland, the head of the Department of Justice, and circulated it to other Republican attorneys general in various states. Emails obtained through additional public records requests show that a staffer from the West Virginia AG’s Office implored them to join the protest, writing, “National gun-rights organizations have sharply criticized the center since it was announced.”
Comments