Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has been meeting with other senators and used a congressional hearing to promote passage of legislation similar to Maine'south yellow flag gun police as a way to foreclose mass shootings like the massacre Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

The Republican raised the effect Tuesday dark, just hours after 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine Manuel Balce Ceneta, file/Associated Press

"The cruel assail on school children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, is a horrific criminal offence," Collins said in a statement. "Although we are still waiting for more details, it is hard to believe that someone who would do this was not severely mentally ill. Congress should look at enacting a yellow flag law based on the one we have in Maine, which has due procedure rights and also involves a medical professional in the decision."

On Wednesday, Collins' office said the senator was working on gun condom legislation with a bipartisan grouping of senators. Collins, a moderate who has been known to cross political party lines, spoke with Sen. Chris Irish potato, D-Connecticut, Midweek morning. The senators discussed the possibility of introducing yellow and red flag legislation, said Annie Clark, Collins' spokesperson.

Maine's so-chosen "yellow flag" law was the consequence of a bipartisan compromise. It creates a process for police to temporarily have guns abroad from people who are in danger of hurting themselves or others. Dissimilar other states with like laws, Maine requires a medical practitioner to sign off on the asking. That provision was key to broad legislative back up for the bill in 2019.

Extreme risk protection orders, sometimes called red flag laws, let family unit members or law enforcement officers to petition a court for a temporary removal of weapons from a person who poses a run a risk to themselves or others. Nineteen states currently accept red flag laws, including Republican-controlled states such as Florida and Indiana.

Irish potato has become an outspoken proponent of gun control post-obit the massacre of 20 students and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary Schoolhouse in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.

He represented Newtown during his time as a U.Due south. congressman and delivered a passionate speech on the floor of the Senate following the shooting Tuesday.

"What are we doing?" Murphy asked, urging his colleagues to find a compromise.

"I'thou here on this floor to beg – to literally get down on my easily and knees – to beg my colleagues. Discover a path forward hither. Work with u.s. to find a fashion to laissez passer laws that make this less likely," he said.

Murphy said he wasn't trying to keen his Republican colleagues into enacting legislation. "I know I have Republican partners," he told Politico. "I know there'south 10 Republicans that will vote for something under the correct circumstances, with the right leadership."

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, negotiated a ruby flag measure following two mass shootings that took identify in San Antonio and Dayton, Ohio, in 2019. But their nib failed to garner the 60 Senate votes necessary for passage.

After talking to White potato, Collins spent part of an Appropriations Commission hearing Wednesday afternoon questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray about gun safety legislation that could exist enacted to foreclose farther tragedies.

COLLINS QUESTIONS FBI Director

At the hearing, Collins promoted Maine's yellow flag gun law, which permits law enforcement to temporarily confiscate weapons from someone who is threatening to impairment themselves or others. In order for the gun to be confiscated, the actions must exist canonical following a medical evaluation and authorization from a courtroom – steps that are designed to protect 2nd Amendment rights.

Collins asked Wray his opinion of how successful red flag and yellowish flag laws have been. Wray told Collins that those laws take proven to exist mostly effective in preventing gun violence.

"In the situations where law enforcement has been successful at preventing an attack, information technology'due south almost always thanks to somebody like that coming forward," Wray said, referring to individuals who noticed a change in a person's behavior that alarmed them and which persuaded them to contact law enforcement.

"What we really need correct now in this state is if you see something (unusual) about somebody, say something, and if they do, whether it's through statutes like the ane on Maine or through some other machinery, that can exist quite constructive," Wray said.

The FBI manager said that if more than states were to adopt cherry-red or yellow flag laws, the FBI would ensure that its database would keep records of people whose weapons were temporarily confiscated.

Tater asked Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, to give a pocket-size bipartisan grouping of senators, including Collins, some other ten days to come up with proposed gun rubber legislation – a asking that Schumer granted. That will give Murphy and Collins this week and all of next week during the Senate pause to come up with legislation.

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