Sen. Files Anti-Red Flag Law Bill For 2020 Session

Thursday, January 2nd 2020, 9:18 am

By: Grant Hermes

A Broken Arrow senator has filed a bill to prevent controversial gun laws from being created in Oklahoma in an attempt to preempt a possible federal version of the law.

SB1081 by Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow), would create an anti-red flag law in Oklahoma, essentially making it illegal to pass any other kind of law that would take someone's gun away.

Red flag laws allow a judge, law enforcement or the family of a person to request to have their firearms temporarily taken away if the person is considered a danger to themselves or others.

“Too often we're on the defensive with a lot of our rights trying to protect our rights,” Dahm said in a video on his Facebook page. “I'm trying to push back preemptively to say that if that happens at the federal level, we will not implement it here at the state level.”

Currently there is no federal version of the law introduced in Congress although conversations about a federal have been embraced by both Republicans and Democrats.

17 states and Washington DC currently have red flag laws. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were more than 415 mass shootings in 2019 where at least 4 people were killed.

Oklahoma already has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the country including an expansive open carry law which was also pushed through by Sen. Dahm last year.

Both Oklahoma and Kansas are expected to take up these anti-red flag laws in the next session.

In the past, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has said he does not support red-flag laws, meaning he would likely be in favor of Dahm's bill should it make it to his desk this spring.