{"id":52013,"date":"2020-08-22T00:43:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T06:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-red-flag-gun-law-has-been-used-73-times-heres-how-it-went\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:58:13","slug":"colorados-red-flag-gun-law-has-been-used-73-times-heres-how-it-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-red-flag-gun-law-has-been-used-73-times-heres-how-it-went\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s red flag gun law has been used 73 times. Here\u2019s how it went"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Disassembled
Disassembled Glock G43X (barrel, guide rod, and slide removed), loaded magazine, and 9mm round.<\/span>Timothy Dykes\/Unsplash<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the seven months after Colorado\u2019s<\/p>\n

Proponents say the data, collected by the state\u2019s court system, shows the policy is working exactly as it should and claim it\u2019s the clearest indication yet that anxieties over rampant, improper usage of the law were overblown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exactly what we thought was going to happen. It\u2019s being used, in the cases that I know about, to protect people who are vulnerable,\u201d said Colorado House Majority Leader Alec Garnett, one of the prime sponsors of the 2019 legislation that created the law. \u201cAll of the fear tactics that the opposition used \u2014 (saying) that this was going to be used by scorned lovers and that cases were going to be all over the place and through the roof \u2014 aren\u2019t coming to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"House
House Majority Leader Alec Garnett, D-Denver, talks to reporters about the introduction of the red flag gun bill on Feb. 14, 2019.<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There has been at least one high-profile case<\/a> of an attempt to misuse the new statute.<\/p>\n

Days after the law went into effect, a woman in Larimer County filed a petition seeking to have firearms seized from the Colorado State University police officer who fatally shot her teenage son in 2017. A judge denied her request, in part because she lied on the petition by claiming that she and the officer were family members because they shared a child together.<\/p>\n

(Family members, roommates and law enforcement are among the limited group of people who can file a petition seeking a gun-seizure order \u2014 called an extreme-risk protection order \u2014 under the red flag law.)<\/p>\n

While opponents of the law pointed to the Larimer County situation as a prime example of how it could be misused, those in favor said it was a clear-cut example of the policy working exactly as it should since the case was quickly tossed out.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Dave Williams, a Colorado Springs Republican and fierce opponent of the statute, said he\u2019s still concerned about the law\u2019s constitutionality and due process protections even if it\u2019s not being frivolously used.<\/p>\n

\u201cOveruse of the red flag law isn\u2019t the issue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s use without adequate due process protections is what\u2019s alarming and it will further erode trust between the public and our criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n

<URL destination=\u201d\u201d>Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<URL destination=\u201d\u201d>Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver County saw the highest number of red flag cases at 25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88033,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52013\/revisions\/88033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52013"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}