Ironically, the same folks who often claim that "enforcing the existing gun laws" is the answer, scream loudly over the red flag laws.
Red flag laws are, in essence, an extension of some of the general tenor in the Form 4473/Form 1/Form 4 (however Uncle Sam's misconceptions re. drug use might or might not be irrelevant, extraneous, etc.). The Forms in reference basically try to ferret out and determine what the red flag laws get at; that if you're perceived as a threat to others, you shouldn't have a firearm. Complicated further by the fluid nature of human mind-set. A threat today might not be a threat tomorrow. And a non-threat today may well be a threat tomorrow.
Whether that means assigning LEO to seize existing firearms at one's home in those cases where a person comes up as qualified for such enforcement, or just stopping the purchase during a NICS check, remains to be a matter of interpretation.
And I'd be among the first to acknowledge the shortcomings of bureaucratic biases, ignorance, over-reaction, under-reaction, etc.
There's also the issue of loosely obtained versus justifiably obtained TRO's and there often being a circumstance involving one-party testimony with sometimes questionable evidence offered up in obtaining a temporary restraining order. And there is often perjury in any contentious family or domestic court process. Been there and done that, and paid some dues, while the other party was never overtly held accountable for their perjury, nearly 40 years ago.
Fortunately, over time, their same antics in numerous other relationships painted them for who and what they were.
The red flag laws get all sorts of blowback from the NRA types, too. And suspension, even temporary, of constitutional rights, based on 'what ifs' gets more than a little precarious, as it probably ought to.
But the states and localities are already empowered to engage in gun restrictions and prohibitions that the SCOTUS has typically backed off from intervening in.
As a kid, in order to hunt when I was 11, we were required to take a firearms safety course. We were also, as part of that, required to take a hunting course that was a part of that (not 2 separate courses). Not a bad idea at all, in my opinion. You have to pass a driver's test in order to drive a car, right?
When I was a kid, they took it one step further and mandated driver's education, too (every trip to town these days I find myself wishing they'd still do that, by the way).
The New York case I'm not familiar with the intricacies sufficiently to comment knowledgably, but I know that one shortcoming in the states that restrict firearm types and purchases, is that they're often next door to other states where there's much easier access to (unlawful) strawman purchases of firearms (the East Coast to the south of New York having numerous states where firearms flow easily), third party buys, and the freeway leading straight into those states that otherwise restrict.
New Yorkers aren't typically manufacturing firearms in their basements, unless they're into 3D printer stuff and not too many are that I know of.
Causing law enforcement to stop being party to undermining legitimate safety regs and laws would be nice, too. That has been a factor in some recent mass shootings.
Probably a dozen things we/I haven't written about or considered.
In the end, teaching better respect to our children re. other humans, whether LGBTQ, or political party affiliation, or race, or.... on and on.. This is a value of human life and view of our place in the universe issue as much as it's a hardware issue. I see that as a major difference between the Swiss experience and ours where mass violence and access to firearms is concerned.
How do you teach a Country with too much nationalist bravado that John Wayne-ism isn't necessarily cool, and that understanding and patience often requires more guts and self-discipline than squeezing a trigger?
Karmically we have a long way to go. As a culture, as a species, and more.
That's my .20 cents on the question(s) you asked.
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that bald SOB doesn't know the meaning of the word...
