A new study is out showing “Red flag” laws could possibly help prevent future mass shootings, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) has seized the opportunity to point to his “Red flag” legislation that he says “incentives more states to adopt” those kinds of laws.
"Study finds that “Red flag” laws such as the ones my bill incentivizes more states to adopt, may play a role in preventing mass shootings," tweeted Rubio
Rubio didn’t go as far as to say that bills like his would prevent mass shootings, rather stating that those measures “may play a role” in the prevention of mass shootings like the recent El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio incidents.
The nonpartisan Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California at Davis published their study that references 20 cases where California’s existing “red flag” law was successfully used to prevent a mass shooting.
According to the Washington Post story Rubio was citing, “Researchers could not definitively state that California’s red-flag law was responsible, noting that it was impossible to know whether threats would have been carried out.”
President Donald Trump, along with both congressional Republicans and Democrats, favor “red flag” laws being put into place to try to prevent future shootings.
Trump and Republicans are focused on taking guns out of the hands of those with mental health issues, while Democrats are taking it further and looking to ban certain guns, as well as ammunition.
Not all Republicans support the “red flag” laws.
Florida State Representative Anthony Sabatini (R) opposes such legislation, tweeting “The type I support looks like this: the government should be allowed to confiscate my firearm after they pry it from my cold dead hands.”