As I’ve written before (Monitor Opinion, Sept. 17), the tide is turning on gun violence prevention. Citizens in New Hampshire and the rest of the country are demanding change in the gun laws that are far too permissive. I suspect if the politicians in power don’t respond appropriately then the politicians who coddle the gun rights minority will have to be voted out of office.

Sadly, the tide has not turned yet. Gun violence in New Hampshire and in our country at large continues to increase, as efforts to pass reasonable gun violence prevention laws have continued to be stymied by too many lawmakers in our state and nationally.

Last year the New Hampshire House and Senate passed three such laws only to have Gov. Chris Sununu veto all of them. Those laws would have expanded background checks to all commercial sales of firearms, would have allowed school districts to choose to restrict firearms on their campuses and would have imposed a three-day waiting period on firearm purchases.

Gov. Sununu stated in his veto message that our current laws are sufficient, but that is far from the case. Indeed, those modest changes were just the beginning steps that are needed to stem the tide of gun violence, but an important start.

Last year there was also an effort for New Hampshire lawmakers to pass a “red flag” law, a law for emergency risk protection orders to remove firearms from individuals who pose an immediate threat of firearm violence. That bill was retained for further study and modifications and is being reintroduced with those modifications (the Murphy Amendment) this year along with the three bills mentioned above and several other gun violence prevention efforts.

Seventeen states have already passed such “red flag” laws, including 12 in just the last year. It can’t be but reasonable for our society (namely our towns and cities) to have a way to remove firearms from individuals who pose an imminent threat to themselves or others, after due process in a court hearing. Such a public safety process is already happening in those 17 states, with positive results of preventing violence and death in those states.

As a psychiatrist, I know that these emergency situations arise, but in New Hampshire we currently have no way to intervene in these circumstances. It just doesn’t make sense to not have an emergency process in place to remove firearms in potentially violent situations, does it?

On the federal level, U.S. laws to reduce the epidemic of gun violence have been woefully inadequate because of unified resistance by the NRA and gun-rights enthusiasts and their Republican supporters in the U.S. Senate and our current president. This continues to be a travesty, as gun violence in our country is so extreme, on average 25 times the rates in other Western democracies such as Great Britain, France and Germany. It is also clear that some states have passed major gun violence prevention laws and those states on average have shown significant reductions in gun homicides, suicides and accidental shootings. Unfortunately, New Hampshire is not one of those states.

The Giffords Law Center rates all states on their preventative gun laws. New Hampshire scored an “F” in the center’s annual Gun Law Scorecard rankings. Even New Hampshire, with a low rate of homicides, scores particularly poorly in the incidence of gun suicides. Across all states, New Hampshire has the 28th highest rate of gun suicides in the country. The rate of gun deaths in New Hampshire increased 51% from 2008 to 2017, compared to a 17% increase over the same period nationwide (Everytown for Gun Safety).

The stats for 2019 are not finalized yet but the indications are that the rates nationally are increasing, as are the rates in New Hampshire.

Here is a list of some of the current gun violence prevention bills in the legislature this year:

HB 687, relative to extreme risk protection (“red flag” law), passed the N.H. House on Wednesday and will be sent on to the Senate.

The remaining bills will be scheduled for hearings in the House and then, if passed, will be sent on to the Senate.

HB 1379, requiring background checks for all commercial firearm sales.

HB 1101, imposing a waiting period between the purchase and delivery of a firearm.

HB 1285, relative to possession of firearms on school property.

HB 1349, establishing a committee to study incidents involving children with access to unsecured firearms.

HB 1350, requiring a locking safety device be provided for commercial firearm sales and transfers.

HB 1143, repealing limited liability for manufacturers, distributors, dealers or importers of firearms and ammunition.

HB 1608, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transfer and possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices (10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for pistols).

The New Hampshire Medical Society has for the last five years been advocating for reasonable gun violence prevention laws to help ameliorate this public health epidemic of gun violence. It is both reasonable and necessary to meet this epidemic with responsible efforts just as we have done with other public safety issues, such as motor vehicle safety, vaccines to prevent contagious diseases, bicycle safety and even the opiate epidemic, where we have seen progress in the last two years. We will never be able to eliminate gun violence, but we must do what we can and should to lessen this scourge of gun violence.

The New Hampshire Medical Society supports all of these gun violence bills and encourages pressure on all our legislators and the governor to support these reasonable gun violence prevention initiatives.

Last year there was another increase to about 40,000 gun deaths (approximately one-third homicides and two-thirds suicides) and so many more gun-related injuries in our country. We cannot ignore this public health epidemic any longer. We need to either change the laws or vote out legislators who oppose such reasonable changes in our laws. Public safety demands such action.

Please contact your state legislators and the governor to support these important steps to turn the tide on the epidemic of gun violence.

(Dr. Leonard Korn is a member of the executive committee of the New Hampshire Medical Society.)