BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York State's new red flag gun law goes into effect on Saturday.
It will allow prosecutors, police, family members, and educators seek a civil order from a state supreme court justice to have someone's guns taken away if they're deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.
As we head into the new school year, 2 On Your Side wanted to know how this will impact high school students. We spoke with a district attorney and a superintendent to get answers.
"This red flag that takes effect on Saturday is just a tool that I have now in my toolbox to prevent hopefully a mass shooting," Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said.
This week Flynn sent letters to every school district in the county about the new red flag law. He says districts can have their own attorneys go to court to ask for the order, or his office can do it.
“They give me the evidence, you know, what's the kid saying in the cafeteria? What's the kid posting on Facebook? I'll talk to his friends, just to get all the basic facts that I can. I'll now, going into court, obviously now the kid has to have a gun now too, OK? So, the kid has got to be 18 years old. The kid's got to have his own gun. I can't take dad's gun. That's an important distinction," Flynn said.
If the parents own guns, Flynn explained what he would do.
"The only thing that I would do in that situation is have a heart-to-heart with dad or mom who owns the gun and say, 'Mom and dad, this is what your son's saying. This is what's happening at the cafeteria at Hamburg High School. This is what your kid is saying. You need to lock your gun up. You need to perhaps get your gun out of the house,' " Flynn said.
On Saturday the Erie County District Attorney's Office provided the following clarification regarding the above comment:
"Any school district in Western New York named during Thursdays news conference regarding the red flag law was mentioned as a hypothetical."
In Niagara County, Niagara Falls City Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie says the new law will put teeth behind what they're already doing, but it won't really change what they're doing.
"Because any time we had a suspected dangerous situation that may involve weapons, we've had the relationship with our police department where my school officials could contact the police department and make a welfare check, or a welfare call, on the family. And because of that relationship with our police department, they've gone in and made an assessment and done what they've had to do," Laurrie said.
Flynn says he will be following up with the school districts and police departments to help train them on how to handle the new law.