To Prevent Suicide, States Want to Let People Ban Themselves From Buying Guns

Donna Nathan, a 67-year-old mother with a long history of bipolar disorder, had been cycling in and out of psychiatric wards for three months. On June 26, 2018 — after her third voluntary hospitalization that year — she bought a Smith & Wesson revolver from a gun store near her home in New Orleans and then went to a park, where she shot herself.

Nathan is now the namesake of a model piece of suicide prevention legislation gaining momentum across the country. “Donna’s Law” allows people to flag themselves in the background check system for prospective gun buyers, effectively suspending their ability to purchase firearms. They can remove themselves from the system after a set period of time. The idea is to give people who are concerned about their own mental health a means to ban themselves from buying guns until they feel better. 

Delaware became the fourth state to pass Donna’s Law when Governor John Carney, a Democrat, signed the bill in August. It was one of at least 20 states and Washington, D.C., that considered a version of the law during legislative sessions in 2023 and 2024 — an “exponential” increase over previous sessions, according to Fredrick Vars, a University of Alabama law professor who came up with the idea for the law. The measure is also on the books in Washington — where Donna’s Law debuted in 2019 — as well as Utah and Virginia, which enacted their own versions in 2021.

Katrina Brees, Nathan’s daughter, worked with Vars to get Donna’s Law passed in Louisiana, but the bill stalled in 2019 and again this year. “If they’re not gonna let me save lives in my own state, I’ll go save lives in any state that wants to save lives with me,” said Brees, who runs a website to help spread Donna’s Law nationwide.

Vars credits a 2023 CBS News segment on Donna’s Law for the idea’s newfound popularity. “Constituents who had seen it on TV said, ‘Hey, I want this option. This could have helped my son, my nephew, my mother, myself,’” he said. 

Donna’s Law has proven one of the few areas of gun policy where Democrats and Republicans can find common ground. Utah’s law was sponsored by state Representative Steve Eliason, a Republican, and it sailed through both chambers of the GOP-dominated Legislature.

The law offers a self-made solution to a clear crisis: Gun suicides hit a record high of more than 27,300 in 2023, accounting for 58 percent of all gun deaths that year. (Other methods of suicide are far less likely to be fatal, and most survivors do not initiate another attempt.) There are roadblocks to scaling it, however, and participation so far has been low.

The Trace surveyed Washington, Utah, and Virginia and found that, as of October, 132 people had used Donna’s Law to suspend their gun rights. Of those, only 13 had later chosen to be removed from the system after waiting a mandatory minimum period ranging from a week in Washington to about six months in Utah.

Vars said the level of participation has been disappointing, but he expects enrollments to increase as awareness spreads and states make it easier to sign up. 

He pointed to Washington, which initially required participants to sign up in person at their local courthouse. That was a barrier: Registering could not only require travel but also be intimidating. In 2023, state lawmakers passed an amendment allowing people to register online. A record 13 people enrolled that year. 

“What has generally been true is the bills keep getting better,” Vars said. “How easy it is to sign up is really the key variable, and that’s becoming easier and easier in each state.”

In Utah, people can sign up through their health care providers. “Two of our largest health care institutions in the state that now have over half the health care market are supportive of this and are training their clinicians on how to use it,” Eliason told The Trace.

Of the legislation considered by states in 2023 and 2024, many bills would have allowed applicants to register online. Vars said he has spoken to lawmakers and expects the bills to be re-introduced in more than half of those states after their new sessions begin in 2025. Six or so other states might introduce the bills for the first time.

Traci Murphy, the executive director of Coalition For a Safer Delaware, a gun violence prevention group, said it took lawmakers in her state several years to agree on legislation requiring prospective gun buyers to obtain a permit and training. Donna’s Law passed in a matter of months; only one lawmaker, a Republican state senator, voted against the bill. “I think it is just a great reminder that gun violence is not a left or right issue, but a life or death issue,” Murphy said.

U.S. House members from both sides of the aisle sponsored a national version of Donna’s Law in 2022, but the bill never received a full vote.

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Virginia had the most significant partisan disagreement over Donna’s Law. There, Republicans were hung up on the notion that someone could be added to the program without their knowledge or consent, even though the bill made that a misdemeanor criminal offense. The measure ultimately passed along party lines. 

State Senator Scott Surovell, a Democrat who sponsored Virginia’s bill, said it can be difficult for people to understand why someone would want to suspend their gun rights. “I don’t think a lot of people have a lot of perspective about what clinical depression or bipolar disorder is, or other kinds of cyclical mental health illnesses that can cause people to make poor choices,” Surovell said.

Murphy, who also serves on the Delaware Suicide Prevention Coalition, said the group plans to promote the new law through its member organizations for now. But she said it’s possible that lawmakers could one day provide funding for a public awareness campaign.

“We’ll go back to the Legislature in January, and there may be more of an appetite for suicide prevention,” Murphy said. “And that’s something that we can continue to invest in.”