Dr. Rosenberg argued that the prevention of armed violence and gun rights are not at odds with each other. It is possible, he said, to develop policies that protect both the rights of gun owners and public health. Dr. Swanson believes that red flag laws are just such a policy. The push for them has been going on for 10 years.
In January 2013, a few weeks after a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Daniel Webster, a pioneer in the field of armed violence research, convened a two-day summit on reduction of armed violence.
Together with Mr. Horwitz, Dr. Webster runs the Hopkins’ Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Mr. Horwitz directs the law, while Dr. Webster oversees academic research. The goal of the summit, Dr. Webster said, was to gather “evidence-based recommendations on what policymakers should do to address armed violence in America,” and publish it quickly, to influence congressional negotiations.
But the resulting book — including chapters by Dr. Swanson and Dr. Wintemute — failed to move members of Congress, who did not pass new laws.
Two months later, Mr. Horwitz convened a research consortium, he said, “to really think about how to address this issue of firearms, mass shootings, suicide, without stigmatizing people with mental illness.”
Soon, Dr. Swanson, Mr. Horwitz and other consortium members began traveling the country, promoting evidence-based policies, including red-flag laws, to state lawmakers. In 2014, California became the first state since Indiana to pass a red flag law. Today, 19 states and the District of Columbia have them.