Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo Signs Executive Order Directing Police to Take Guns From 'Red Flag' Individuals

(CitizensOutpost) On Monday, Democrat Rhode Island Governor, Gina Raimondo, signed an executive order that is supposed to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands.

The order tells police to be more aggressive when conducting investigations of people who are believed to be dangerous and, in special circumstances, to confiscate their firearms.

Via ABC News:

"The executive order I signed today is an immediate step we can take to make residents safer. It sets the table for a complementary legislative effort," Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. "We cannot wait a minute longer for Washington to take action to prevent gun violence."

Five states -- Connecticut, California, Washington, Oregon and Indiana -- have taken similar action on potential red flags in recent years, but Rhode Island is the first to do so since the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month.

The policy does not give law enforcement new authority to confiscate guns, but it directs them to use "all available legal steps" to remove firearms from people who have shown warning signs, including recently making threats of violence online or in person, according to the statement.

Other states such as Florida have already taken similar measures. The Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, also known as the Backer Act, allows the involuntary institutionalization and examination of an individual that can be initiated by judges, law enforcement officials, physicians, or mental health professionals where evidence must be produced that someone possibly has a mental illness as defined in the Act, or is in danger of becoming a harm to self, harm to others, or is self neglectful as also defined by the Act. This would allow for committing a mentally unstable person into a mental health care facility and remove their firearms accordingly.

One has to wonder with this law already in effect in Florida, how did all the warning signs get missed? Nikolas Cruz should have been committed to a mental health facility.

Source: Rhode Island executive order encourages taking guns from 'red flag' individuals