Colorado Sheriff Joins Effort to Pass Law to Keep Guns from Mentally Ill

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock has joined with 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler in a renewed effort to create a "red flag law" in Colorado that would allow guns to be confiscated from the severely mentally ill, according to the Denver Post .

Citing the murder of Deputy Zackari Parrish on New Year's Eve, they are trying to change the state’s mental health hold laws to make it easier for law enforcement to take a person having a mental health crisis into custody.

Deputy Parrish was killed in an ambush attack allegedly perpetrated by a man who had previously been "placed on a mental health hold and, in the weeks leading up to the shooting, posted incoherent rants online, threatening his former law school, sending vile emails to his mother and harassing a police officer who had written him a speeding ticket," the Denver Post said.

A previous version of the proposed "red flag" legislation — which would have allowed guns to be seized from the mentally ill — failed to pass in May.