Study shows red flag laws first enacted in CT are effective in saving lives by preventing suicides

Hartford Courant – Wednesday, November 27, 2024
By Justin Muszynski

A recent study looking at data from Connecticut and several other states found that red flag laws are an effective measure at preventing suicide.

The study looked at 4,583 Extreme Risk Protection Order respondents in California, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington to help better understand the effectiveness of these laws. Of these, 1,407 respondents were taken from Connecticut, where the orders are commonly referred to as a risk warrant or a risk protection order and allow law enforcement to temporarily seize an individual’s guns if they are believed to present a threat to themselves or others.

The findings of the study were published in September in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law. Using two different approaches, researchers estimated that it takes between 17 and 23 Extreme Risk Protection Orders to prevent one suicide.

Researchers found that of the pool that was studied, 45 individuals went on to die by suicide, including 20 who used a firearm and 25 who died by other methods. The data showed that 91% of those who died by suicide were males, and that 97% of the suicide deaths involving a firearm were males.

“The biggest takeaway is that we have fairly strong, if indirect evidence, that extreme risk protection orders save lives with respect to suicide,” said Dr. Jeffrey W. Swanson, professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine.

“The other thing I would say is, if anything it’s probably an underestimate because the entire effect that we’re modeling here with our statistical analysis is simply that when someone does make a suicide attempt, they don’t have a gun, they use something else,” said Swanson, one of the authors to the research article. “And the something else is just much more survivable. If someone tries to end their life by taking a bunch of pills they have about a 90% chance of surviving that. If they have a firearm and they use that instead, they have about a 90% chance of dying.

“So if you just change the method of availability to access lethal means, it’s a huge public health opportunity but it doesn’t even account for the fact that a number of these folks that having the ERPO issued can be a portal into treatment,” Swanson said.

The study focused solely on suicide and prevention, and did not take into account lives that could have been saved by a risk order issued in connection with someone who was not believed to be suicidal. The findings echo a similar study Swanson and others were previously involved in that looked at a smaller sample using data from just Connecticut.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates increased about 36% between 2000 and 2022, with suicide being responsible for 49,476 deaths in 2022. The same year, suicide was among the top nine leading causes of death for people between 10 and 64 years old and was the the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 25-34, the CDC states.

Estimates suggest about 13.2 million adults seriously thought about suicide in 2022; 3.8 million planned a suicide attempt; and 1.6 million attempted suicide, according to the CDC.

Individuals considering suicide is just one component of red flag laws, according to Dr. John DeCarlo, director of the master’s program in criminal justice at the University of New Haven. They can also apply to individuals experiencing mental health issues or those who are believed to be at risk of committing a mass shooting, engaging in domestic violence or other type of gun violence.

In 1999, Connecticut became the first state to enact a red flag law, according to the Office of Legislative Research. In 2021, the law was expanded to, among other things, “establish a process for family members and others to ask the court for an RPO investigation,” the office states.

More than a dozen other states have followed Connecticut’s lead in enacting similar laws, which DeCarlo said are often created following school shootings or other types of mass shootings.

In Connecticut, law enforcement can seize an individual’s firearms and ammunition for no more than 14 days once a court issues a risk warrant, according to the state Judicial Branch. During that time period, a hearing must be held where a judge will determine if the individual is a threat to themselves or others. If that finding is not met, the order is terminated and the respondent is entitled to their guns or ammunition. If it is met, the order can be extended until a judge finds that the respondent is no longer a threat, according to the Judicial Branch.

“I think that the current public perception is that they’re a good thing,” said DeCarlo, who retired as a police chief in Branford in 2011. “But I think there is still an ongoing debate.”

Critics of risk warrants and ERPOs contend that they are overreaching and potentially violate the Second Amendment, DeCarlo said. They also often argue the premise of predicting future violence and that they violate due process rights, as the criteria for the orders does not include a conviction through the criminal justice system.

But studies like the one conducted by Swanson and others show that risk orders can be an effective way to help mitigate gun violence in a country where private gun ownership is more prevalent than any other place in the world, DeCarlo said.

“I think that study will be used not only in a scientific way, but in a legal way as evidence in court cases to bolster the support for this type of mediation,” DeCarlo said.

Swanson said there’s still much more research to be done, but that the data that has been studied thus far has shown the benefits of red flag laws and their application to real-world issues.

“I think we should follow what science tells us and sometimes, which means let’s apply what we know, let’s figure out what we don’t know and let’s figure out maybe what we think we know that ain’t so,” Swanson said. “There’s a lot of times when people think something’s true and it makes sense and then you do a study and you find out, maybe that’s not true.”

“I believe in evidence-based policy and law — public health laws in particular,” Swanson said. “Also, it’s important to have practice informed research so that when we do research we’re actually trying to answer a question that matters. So if we get the answer to it, it’s going to be applicable.”

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