North Carolina Republican leaders show few signs of moving on gun legislation after the latest mass shootings, though Lt. Gov. Dan Forest voiced some support this week for "red flag" laws meant to take guns away from potentially dangerous people.

Forest, who is kicking off a campaign for governor next weekend, indicated during a radio interview that he supports the concept behind so-called "red flag" laws, which let family or law enforcement go to a judge to take someone's guns, temporarily, if there's a concern of imminent danger.

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But the lieutenant governor largely shut that door Friday, saying in a written statement that he's "yet to see a red flag bill that adequately protects the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans."

"We'd be better served as a nation by addressing the root causes that are driving people to violence – the breakdown of the family, mental illness, social isolation and the refusal to recognize the dignity of human life," he said in his statement.

Forest told Tyler Cralle with WAAV 980 AM in Wilmington on Wednesday that he and other Republicans would support a red flag bill if it was written properly.

“Yeah, of course," Forest said. "I mean, I think that that’s part of the issue, right? I think that family members and friends and others need to be able to raise the red flag ... and say this person is pretty unstable right here. And then there's got to be a series of layers that you go through.

"You can't say just, because the media says that, 'Oh well, you're a Republican evangelical Christian, you're unstable and you shouldn't own a gun,'" he continued. "Because that's what CNN would try to do. But the reality is that there are people that are mentally unstable out there."

WRAL News reached out to the Lieutenant Governor's Office for more details Wednesday, then to his campaign Thursday and Friday. They responded Friday with the written statement, saying all the red flag bills proposed so far have been "overly broad, undefined plans that could lead to government gun confiscation."

A spokesman declined to say whether Forest, who presides over the North Carolina Senate, would work to craft a red flag bill more to his liking.

Democrats in both legislative chambers filed red flag bills, and other gun control bills, months ago. So far, they haven't gotten a committee hearing, but Democrats are pushing for one now. In the House, they filed a discharge petition, a potential end-around House Republican leadership to bring the bill to the floor if enough members sign on.

Four days in, the petition has 48 signatures, none from Republicans. There are 55 Democratsin the House, and they need 61 signatures to move the bill.

Senate Democrats have suggested they'll make this same move next week, but they started this week by publicly asking Republicans to move their version of the red flag bill through the normal process instead. Sen. Wiley Nickel, D-Wake, read the names of victims from the Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, shootings on the Senate floor.

"They don't want thoughts and prayers any more. They want action," Nickel said.

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House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger both expressed doubts this week that a workable red flag bill will emerge.

"Thus far, no one has presented to me ... a specific bill that looks to me like something that would have prevented things that happened this weekend," said Berger, R-Rockingham.

Moore, R-Cleveland, said there are already laws in place to take people's guns when needed.

"If someone is acting in a certain way ... they can have their firearms taken," he said. "Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't."

Moore was talking about a judge's ability to take someone's guns in domestic violence cases and through involuntary psychiatric commitments. Moore, an attorney who has worked on involuntary commitments in the past, said the Democrats' red flag bill goes too far.

But asked whether current law goes far enough, Moore paused.

"I think, before we change anything, before we would ever change anything at all ... you'd want to really be able to fully answer that question," he said.

Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, a former judge, is the lead sponsor of House Bill 454. It would authorize new "extreme risk protection orders" to seize firearms when a judge believes someone "poses a significant danger of harming themselves or others." The judge could make that decision without hearing first from the person about to lose his or her guns, and law enforcement could temporarily seize those guns.

The court would have to give the person who loses the guns a chance to make a case within 10 days.

Morey said there are holes in the state's current gun surrender laws. Among other things, she said she's heard from people whose parents are suffering from dementia but don't want them committed.

"Legally, they have no recourse," she said.

Morey said she's talked to a handful of Republicans interested in the bill and that they say a dialogue is happening in their caucus.

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It's possible a red flag law will move at the federal level.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said this week that expanded background checks for gun purchases and red flag laws will be "front and center" in discussions. Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has proposed legislation to give federal grants to help states to enforce red flag laws.

President Donald Trump called this week for new red flag laws, boosting the chances of Republican action. But the president can be mercurial, and he often does not tell the truth.

Moore and other North Carolina Republicans focused their remarks this week on mental health over gun control. Forest, in his radio interview, expressed support for increased institutionalization, saying the move in recent decades toward in-community treatment shifted problems to the state's hospitals and jails.

Forest acknowledged that "guns are problems in these mass shootings, obviously," but he quickly switched to a discussion on mental health, personal responsibility and what he sees as a failing social morality.

“Listen, the first murder in the Bible, Cain killed Abel with a rock," Forest said. "God didn’t blame the rock. We knew that it was a personal responsibility issue. It was an issue of evil, and we have evil in the world today ... You can't continue to blame and outlaw the inanimate objects."