Arkansas Senate Democrats last week filed legislation to create a new type of judicial order that would allow firearms to be confiscated from people deemed imminently dangerous.
Sponsors believe the bill has a chance to gain traction in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Senate Bill 621 was filed Wednesday by Sens. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, and Will Bond, D-Little Rock.
The so-called red-flag legislation was in the works for months before the session began in January, Democrats said. The state's Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, had said in August that he was "open" to having a discussion about such a law.
Leding said drafts of the bill had been reviewed by the governor's staff, leading to some changes. He said he did not know whether the governor had read the bill drafts.
"I am hopeful that it would have the governor's support," Leding said.
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor, said Hutchinson has not seen any drafts of legislation "that would adequately protect due process" for people accused of being a danger to themselves or others. Davis said he did not know whether Hutchinson had read SB621.
Fourteen states have enacted laws allowing a family member or law enforcement official to ask a court to order the temporary removal of someone's guns from his or her possession, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates for gun control.
Red-flag laws, as they are commonly known, are one of five types of state laws that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette examined as part of a 2018 investigation into gun violence in Arkansas. The investigation found that more than 8,000 people in Arkansas had been killed in shootings dating back to 1999, at a rate higher than all but six states. States that had enacted some of the five types of laws were among the states with the lowest rates of gun deaths in the nation.
Leding said SB621 most closely mirrored legislation that is pending in the Arizona Legislature. However, unlike the Arizona legislation, which would allow a family member to petition a court for the removal of firearms, SB621 would require that a petition must come from at least two law enforcement officers who swear in affidavits that they have investigated an allegation and determined that a gun owner poses an imminent threat to use the gun against "himself, herself or another person."
If the judge agreed, then that judge would be able to order the temporary removal of guns from the owner, to be followed by a court hearing in the next three days.
If, at the hearing, the judge still found grounds for the confiscation, then the judge could order that the guns be kept away from the subject for up to a year. During that time, the gun owner would be able to ask the court for the return of the weapons.
"This is not in any way a permanent ban," Leding said. "No one loses their constitutional right."
The bill also proposes penalties for those who file a false or "flagrantly mischaracterized" report to police. Filing such a report, if it leads to confiscating a person's guns, would be a class D felony, punishable by up to six years in prison.
Leding conceded that getting a red-flag bill through the Republican-majority Legislature would be an uphill battle.
Asked about SB621 on Friday, House Majority Leader Marcus Richmond, R-Harvey, said that while he had yet to see the details of the legislation, House Republicans are unlikely to go along with a gun-control bill proposed by Democrats.
"The premise of it, I'm not comfortable with the idea of a red flag," Richmond said.
Metro on 03/25/2019