reporter: sheriff hamilton argues giving someone 48 hours to turn in their weapons will only cause them to move up the timeline for whatever crime they may be planning. but you don t know that for sure. why not serve the order? i do know that for sure. i had 28 years of dealing with the criminal mind out there. i m going to tell you, no red flag law in any way, shape or form is going to change a criminal s mind that is dead set on committing such an atrocity as a mass shooting. reporter: but sheila lewis, with new mexicans to prevent gun violence, says the sheriff he has it all wrong. there has not been a reported case of someone running out to commit a violent crime in that 48 hour period because they were served with an order. reporter: what does tend to happen? they bring their guns in to law enforcement, and they go to court. reporter: with new mexico s red flag law, after a person is ordered to turn over their guns, there is a ten-day cooling off period and then a co
on the state s emergency mental health law, which he says allows authorities to immediately take a person into custody for mental health treatment. that is not what we want to do. we don t want to seize people. we want to seize the firearm. reporter: sheriff hamilton says the red flag law has no provision to treat the individual who is dealing with a mental crisis. i would much rather that individual be receiving mental treatment at one of the local mental facilities than to rely on that individual to have some kind of a revelation that he now wants to start abiding by the law. and randi joins us now. you know, i certainly defer the sheriff on his expertise over his long law enforcement career, but he s talking about a criminal mindset. he s not taking into account the huge number of suicides used with weapons. and studies show any kind of intervention with somebody who has suicidal ideation can be successful and they may not do it again. so, if somebody is in a mental health cri
health treatment. that is not what we want to do. we don t want to seize people. we want to seize the firearm. reporter: sheriff hamilton says the red flag law has no provision to treat the individual who is deal being a mental crisis. i would much rather that individual be receiving mental treatment at one of the local mental facilities than to rely on that individual to have some kind of a revelation that he now wants to start abiding by the law. and randi joins us now. you know, i certainly defer the sheriff on his expertise over his long law enforcement career, but he s talking about a criminal mindset. he s not taking into account the huge number of suicides used with weapons. and studies show any kind of intervention with somebody who has suicidal ideation can be successful and they may not do it again. so, if somebody is in a mental health crisis, i don t understand his aversion to asking them to bring in to remove their guns from their home.