Red flag law could save countless Pa. lives. But we have to act now.

Scott Spoor began struggling with depression and anxiety in 2008.

Around the same time, his wife, Jennifer Lugar, was busy raising their two daughters while working full time and also caring for him. Spoor sought medical treatment for his mental health issues, but during the 2009 Super Bowl weekend he overdosed on pills and alcohol and wound up in an intensive care unit. When it was time for Spoor to be released from the hospital, a social worker gave Lugar a worksheet with information about how to care for him. At the bottom, Lugar noticed a reference about the importance of removing all firearms from the home.

That’s when she remembered her husband’s handgun. It had long been a point of contention because Lugar didn’t want it in the house. But Spoor would use it for target shooting a few times each year. Hours before he was due back home, Lugar bought a lock box and hid the weapon in the attic with their Christmas decorations. Spoor came home from the hospital and participated in therapy and other treatment. But a few weeks later, he overdosed again, and was readmitted.

That spring, they were going to their family’s vacation home in rural North Carolina. Spoor wanted to take the gun for target shooting. They argued about it. He said he just wanted to feel normal again. She relented.

Life continued. There were good days, but bad ones, too. That September, Spoor started spiraling downhill again. Then, one day while Lugar was at work, he called her to say goodbye.

“I raced home, but he was not there, but the closet was ransacked,” she recalled. “I at that point remembered the damn gun. I called the police.”

She spoke with her husband on the phone while an officer handed her notes telling her what to say to him to try to keep him talking so they could trace his cell phone signal. They were able to track down where he was sitting in his car and surrounded the vehicle. But before they could intervene, Spoor took his own life. It was the week before their 10th wedding anniversary.

As a journalist, I’ve written about countless people whose lives might have been saved if only authorities had stepped in and temporarily seized a potential shooter’s weapons. Even though I don’t remember all of their names, their stories have stayed with me. I can’t help but wonder how many of them might still be alive today had red flag laws been in place.

These laws — also known as extreme risk protection orders — save lives. Connecticut adopted the nation’s first such law in 1999 after a disgruntled employee killed four of his coworkers at the Connecticut Lottery. “If there had been a red flag law and I had been told about it ... there would have been no gun in the house,” said Lugar, who now lives in Jenkintown.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have red flag laws. Pennsylvania does not.

It’s way past time that the Keystone State caught up. And right now, we have a golden opportunity.

Last week, Congressman Dwight Evans called me to talk about a new pot of money — $750 million — that’s been set aside by the federal government as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to help the remaining states implement red flag laws. But to get a piece of that money, Pennsylvania needs to pass its own version of a red flag law.

“Remember this was passed by Democrats and Republicans,” he said, adding that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) were among the bill’s supporters.

It’s been tried before at the state level. Pennsylvania State Rep. Todd Stephens (R., Montgomery) introduced House Bill 2227 in 2018 after seeking answers following the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead and 17 others injured.

“It would allow family members or law enforcement to go before a judge and present evidence that an individual is a danger to himself or others,” he said recently.

That individual would be entitled to a full hearing to decide if their firearm rights should be suspended for up to a year, and could appeal to have it lifted earlier, Stephens explained.

The bill has gone nowhere, despite the fact that roughly 1,600 Pennsylvanians die from gun violence each year, more than half by suicide.

“These suicides are preventable,” Stephens said. “If we can save lives here in Pennsylvania, we ought to be doing so and put another tool in the toolbox for family members and law enforcement to help people who are in crisis get through the crisis without taking their own life.”

Perhaps now, with $750 million in new funding earmarked for nationwide implementation of red flag laws, and so many Republicans supporting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, lawmakers in rural areas will step up and support the establishment of red flag laws in Pennsylvania.

It’s too late for Lugar and her daughters. But for the next family in crisis, it doesn’t have to be.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.