Mass shootings dominate the headlines and seem to drive the movement to change gun policy, but reducing gun suicides could save many more lives.
More than 20,000 people each year kill themselves with a gun; that’s twice the number of gun homicides. The Parkland, Fla., massacre claimed 17 lives; roughly 59 people die by gun suicide each day.
An innovative new law could bring down this tragic death toll.
Washington will soon become the first state in the country to enact a “firearm choice” law. It passed by wide margins in the state Senate and House, with support from Democrats as well as Republicans, and is now awaiting Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature.
The idea is simple: Give people who believe that they may become a risk to themselves or others a way to put distance between themselves and firearms. Under the new law, Washington citizens can add their names to a do-not-sell list, thereby suspending their ability to buy guns from licensed dealers.
Bipartisan legislative consensus around this program was achievable because the measure is entirely voluntary. No one is taking away anyone’s right to bear arms.
Adding your name to the list does not have to be a permanent choice.
Those who sign up can later change their minds. They need only make the request and wait seven days. The Washington law in essence gives people the right to opt in to a waiting period.
Two recent studies have shown that purchase delays are effective in reducing suicide. Waiting periods work because suicide is often impulsive. Even if someone turned away at a gun dealership attempts suicide using another method, he is much more likely to survive than if he’d used a firearm. And only 10 percent of people who survive a suicide attempt go on to die by self-harm.
Washington will be the first to enact a firearm choice law, but legislators in California and three other states have introduced versions of it. Some would make the waiver more durable by having participants wait up to three weeks before their rescission becomes effective, or by having them convince a judge or a psychiatrist that they are not a risk to themselves or others.
The state of Washington has shown that it is possible to enhance individual liberty by giving people a new firearm choice that will reduce gun deaths. It turns out that libertarian gun control is not an oxymoron.
Ian Ayres is a law professor at Yale University. Fredrick Vars is a law professor at the University of Alabama.