Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday he would be “open” to supporting legislation to create judicial orders that could temporarily take weapons away from people deemed a risk to themselves or others, as a way of alleviating the death toll of gun violence in Arkansas.
The governor’s comments came when asked about an investigation by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The newspaper found that more than 8,000 people had been killed by gunfire in the state since 1999, a per capita rate that ranked seventh worst in the nation.
The newspaper also examined several model laws touted by researchers and advocates that have been enacted in states that have lower rates of gun violence.
Asked Wednesday to respond to the report, Hutchinson, a Republican, pointed to two other subjects of the investigation — a need to process state-level information into a federal background check system, and helping federal authorities crack down on felons in possession of weapons — as having a positive effect on gun violence.
He also singled out so-called “red flag laws,” or temporary orders for the confiscation of guns from at-risk persons, as a possible solution.
“It has to be accompanied by due process. It has to be, because you’re dealing with constitutional rights and liberties,” Hutchinson said. “It’s fair to look at it … that could be a debate in the next session of the Legislature.”
Hutchinson said some of the other laws examined by the newspaper — universal background checks, waiting periods, safe storage requirements and mandatory reporting of lost and stolen firearms — were “non-starters” in Arkansas. He declined to specify which laws those were.
Information for this article was contributed by Ginny Monk of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Ryan Tarinelli for the Democrat-Gazette.