Demand Three

The third priority policy Youth EMPOWER is supporting is passing a gun violence restraining order law.

There is a federal law that states that people suffering from mental illnesses are not prohibited from purchasing and possessing a gun unless they have been formally and involuntarily admitted to a mental institution, found not guilty by reason of insanity, or have undergone some other form of court proceedings regarding their mental state.

Also, people who have committed violent acts toward others are not prohibited from possessing guns unless they are the subject of a domestic violence restraining order, have been convicted of a felony, or have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor.

Many can agree that someone with violent tendencies and mental issues should not be able to access or be in possession of guns.

Why would you want someone who is not mentally stable to be in possession of a weapon that can kill someone in seconds?

There are many factors that others around a mentally unstable person can detect, and the ones who detect these tendencies earliest are family members. However, the federal law does not allow family or household members, those closest to the victim, to disarm an individual if that person shows violent behaviors.

States have been fixing this problem by passing laws and acts, such as a gun violence restraining order.

The Gun Violence Restraining Order, as known in Washington, allows family and household members, as well as law enforcement officers, to petition to a court to have someone’s access to guns removed if the person poses an imminent danger to themselves or others.

As of 2017, only four states have enacted this law or one very similar. These states are Washington, Oregon, Indiana, and California.

This law would not take someone’s guns away forever. It would just remove an individual’s access to guns while the person showed signs of violent or suicidal behaviors until the individual received the mental help he or she needed. EMPOWER believes this could prevent countless murders and suicides around the nation.

Gifford’s Law Center states that 80 percent of people considering suicide show signs of mental health issues and 38 of the 62 mass shooters in the last 20 years showed signs of dangerous mental health problems prior to the killings.

If this law had been enacted in every state, dozens of suicides and mass shootings could’ve been prevented. Parents could have prevented their children from killing themselves or others if only there was a way they could have temporarily taken their guns away.