Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick announced that his office would be implementing new training programs dealing with recent gun control legislation passed by the state legislature back in January.

The training Fitzpatrick is seeking to implement in the coming weeks is precisely the sort of attitude an authority charged with our safety should adopt.

The programs, which will go into effect in the upcoming weeks, are aimed at providing useful information to school administrators, law enforcement and prosecutors, to ensure the new policies prove as effective as possible.

These gun laws empower loved ones and law enforcement to intervene to prevent gun violence and save lives.

The new programs deal with Extreme Risk Protection Orders, better known as “red flag” laws. These laws allow law enforcement to temporarily seize firearms and ammunition at-risk individuals may possess or have access to.

School administrators, family members and district attorneys can petition the courts when they believe someone with access to a firearm may be an imminent and credible threat to themselves or others.

“The New ERPO laws give us the ability to respond quickly to public safety concerns regarding threats of violence, assess the seriousness of those threats through a legal process and immediately secure any firearms that the person posing the threat may have access to,” said Domenic Trunfio, first chief assistant district attorney for the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office. Trunfio is an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s School of Law and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

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Both the training initiative and the broader state law were enacted in response to the deadly mass shooting in Parkland, Florida back in February of 2018. Currently, 17 states, including New York, and the District of Columbia, have adopted some iteration of these laws, and four more states have similar bills proposed in their legislative pipeline.

In recent years, the rise in mass shooting incidents has been erroneously linked by some politicians to mental illness and an alleged failure in treatment. In contrast to politicians eager to scapegoat the mentally ill, the New York state legislature and the local DA’s office have opted to focus on practical, common-sense solutions that appropriately balance public safety with due process.

While red flag laws are not without their critics on both sides of the aisle, they generally enjoy broad, bipartisan support amongst Americans. A July survey showed that 77% of surveyed Americans support family-initiated ERPOs, and about 70% supported law enforcement-initiated ERPOs.

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These laws signal a significant victory for proponents of tighter gun control legislation. Such actions, while laudable, are not without their political consequences. Fitzpatrick, a Republican DA, faces a determined right-wing challenger in the upcoming November election.

Red flag laws are a step in the right direction for gun control in the wake of mass shootings. Restricting access to firearms for at-risk individuals goes beyond the general interest of checking off liberal agenda items regarding gun control — it’s something that directly affects all of us.

Last spring, Syracuse police managed to apprehend a Syracuse University student, Xioteng Zhan, before he could attempt a planned mass shooting on campus. Zhan had tried to purchase firearms and had stockpiled ammunition in his downtown apartment. Following a timely intervention by Syracuse police and federal agents, he was expelled from the school and deported back to China.

Zhan had confided his plans to a friend via text message and had even sought psychiatric care more than once in the months leading up to his arrest. Had ERPO’s already been in place, it’s possible that authorities could have intervened even sooner.

Sayem Sinha is a senior psychology major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at sasinha@syr.edu.

Published on September 18, 2019 at 1:29 am