Emily Fennick / Getty Images/EyeEm In the wake of the Parkland high school massacre, there’s been renewed interest in "red flag" laws, which allow courts and police to temporarily remove guns from people perceived to pose a threat. The new research offers insight into the laws’ effect — and it may not be what you think. "Although these laws tended to be enacted after mass shooting events, in practice, they tend to be enforced primarily for suicide prevention," says Aaron Kivisto, a clinical psychologist with the University of Indianapolis who studies gun violence prevention. He’s completed a new study of the effect of red flag laws in Connecticut and Indiana, two states that have had such laws on the books the longest. "In Indiana, for example, there have been some years where 80 percent of all gun seizures have been due to a concern for suicide rather than homicide or domestic violence reasons," he said. And his research suggests it’s working. "In Indiana, after the enactment of the law [in 2005], we saw a 7.5 percent decrease in firearms suicides in the 10 years that followed," Kivisto said. "We didn’t see any notable increase or decrease in non-firearms suicide." He says the picture is more "nuanced" in Connecticut, which passed a red flag law in 1999. He says there was little effect in the first few years — just a 1.6 percent decrease in gun suicides — but he thinks that’s because the law wasn’t enforced much at first. […]

Click here to view original web page at Gun Studies: Permit Laws Reduce Murders; Red Flag Laws Cut Suicides

In the wake of the Parkland high school massacre, there’s been renewed interest in "red flag" laws, which allow courts and police to temporarily remove guns from people perceived to pose a threat. The new research offers insight into the laws’ effect — and it may not be what you think. "Although these laws tended to be enacted after mass shooting events, in practice, they tend to be enforced primarily for suicide prevention," says Aaron Kivisto, a clinical psychologist who studies gun violence prevention. He’s completed a new study of the effect of red flag laws in Connecticut and Indiana, two states that have had such laws on the books the longest. "In Indiana, for example, there have been some years where 80 percent of all gun seizures have been due to a concern for suicide rather than homicide or domestic violence reasons," he said. And his research suggests it’s working. "In Indiana, after the enactment of the law [in 2005], we saw a 7.5 percent decrease in firearms suicides in the 10 years that followed," Kivisto said. "We didn’t see any notable increase or decrease in non-firearms suicide." He says the picture is more "nuanced" in Connecticut, which passed a red flag law in 1999. He says there was little effect in the first few years — just a 1.6 percent decrease in gun suicides — but he thinks that’s because the law wasn’t enforced much at first. After the Virginia Tech shootings of 2007, he says enforcement […]

Click here to view original web page at Gun Studies: Permit Laws Reduce Murders; Red Flag Laws Cut Suicides