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Red flag law
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Red flag law
In the United States, a red flag law (named after the idiom red flag meaning “warning sign“; also known as a risk-based gun removal law,) is a gun law that permits a state court to order the temporary seizure of firearms (and other items regarded as dangerous weapons, in some states) from a person who they believe may present a danger. A judge makes the determination to issue the order based on statements and actions made by the gun owner in question. Refusal to comply with the order is punishable as a criminal offense. After a set time, the guns are returned to the person from whom they were seized unless another court hearing extends the period of confiscation.
As of May 2023, 21 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some form of red-flag law. The specifics of the laws, and the degree to which they are utilized, vary from state to state. Names vary by state, and include Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs, in Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia); Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Orders (ERFPOs, in New Mexico); Emergency Substantial Risk Orders (ESROs, in Virginia); Firearm Restraining Orders (FROs, in Illinois); Gun Violence Protective Orders (GVPOs, in Hawaii); Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs, in California); Lethal Violence Protective Orders (LVPOs, in Delaware), Risk Protection Orders (RPOs, in Florida); Risk Warrants (in Connecticut); and Proceedings for the Seizure and Retention of a Firearm (in Indiana).
In 1999, Connecticut became the first state to enact a red flag law, after a rampage shooting at the Connecticut Lottery. It was followed by Indiana, which adopted its legislation in 2005; called Jake Laird's Law, it was named after an Indianapolis police officer was fatally shot by a mentally disturbed man. Subsequent red-flag laws were adopted by California (2014), Washington (2016), and Oregon (2017). The California State Legislature was the first to enact a red flag law allowing family members to petition state courts to remove weapons from persons deemed a threat after Elliot Rodger committed a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California; the California law also permits law enforcement officials to petition the court for an order for the removal of guns from an individual for up to twelve months.
Before 2018, only the above-mentioned five states had some version of red flag laws. After the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, that number more than doubled, as more states enacted such laws: Florida, Vermont, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District of Columbia. A content analysis study published in 2022 examined newspaper articles published in 2018 in three states that passed ERPOs after the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida (Florida, Rhode Island, and Vermont) and three states that did not (Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Ohio). The study found that the passage of ERPOs was associated with media coverage that used official policy names/acronyms (as opposed to simply "red flag"); accurately portrayed gun violence as a preventable problem, and that referred to ERPO policies in other states. The survey found that "although only one in four articles cited scientific evidence related to gun violence generally, articles about passing states were significantly more likely to cite the small but growing body of research about ERPO implementation and effectiveness. These findings point to the value of relevant data, likely in combination with the lived experience and advocacy efforts of those most impacted, for building policy momentum through the media."
In 2019, New York enacted a red-flag law as part of a broader package of gun-control legislation that overwhelmingly passed the state legislature. In addition to allowing police and family members to petition for entry of an extreme risk protection order, the law also allows teachers and school administrations to file such petitions, making New York the first state to include such a provision. Three other states enacted red-flag laws in 2019: Colorado, Nevada and Hawaii. The Colorado, Nevada, and Hawaii laws all went into effect on January 1, 2020.
In 2020, New Mexico became the 18th state to adopt a red-flag law, after Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation on February 25, 2020. New Mexico's law went into effect on July 1, 2020.
In Virginia, the state's General Assembly, then controlled by Republicans, voted down red-flag legislation in its January 2019 session. After the Virginia Beach shooting later that year, Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, called the Republican-controlled General Assembly into special session to consider gun-control legislation. The legislature did not vote on any gun legislation. After the Democrats won control of both chambers of the General Assembly in the fall 2019 elections, for the first time in more than two decades, Northam vowed to reintroduce gun control proposals, including a red flag bill. The General Assembly subsequently passed an emergency substantial risk order (ESRO) law, on a party-line vote in the Senate and a nearly party-line vote in the House of Delegates. Northam signed the legislation into law in April 2020, alongside four separate gun measures. Fairfax County, Virginia and the Alexandria-based gun-violence prevention nonprofit group Safer Country have become leaders in awareness campaigns to inform the public and law enforcement about the use of Virginia's ESRO law.
Some local sheriffs in rural Colorado counties refused to use the state's risk-based gun violence prevention, with some declaring their counties "sanctuaries" from gun laws they opposed; many of the sheriffs reversed course after gun violence incidents in their communities. A 2022 analysis of court records by KHN found that, two and a half years after the passage of Colorado's risk-based gun violence prevention law, petitions for protection orders had been filed in 20 of the 37 counties with sheriffs who previously said that they would refuse to use or enforce such laws, and that such petitions were often filed "by the very sheriffs who had previously denounced the law." In El Paso County, Colorado, however, Sheriff Bill Elder followed a policy of barring the Sheriff's Office from filing petitions under Colorado's law based on Elder's belief that the laws are unconstitutional. (although Elder said that it would enforce orders granted by the courts on the petition of non-law enforcement). El Paso County was the location of a 2022 Colorado Springs shooting massacre in which a gunman killed five people and wounded many more. Despite a history of alarming behavior (such as bomb threats) that would have made him a candidate for a gun removal order under Colorado's law, the arrested man was never subject to a petition for an order and was thus legally permitted to obtain the guns used in the attack, raising new scrutiny of the sheriff's refusal to use the Colorado law.
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Red flag law
In the United States, a red flag law (named after the idiom red flag meaning “warning sign“; also known as a risk-based gun removal law,) is a gun law that permits a state court to order the temporary seizure of firearms (and other items regarded as dangerous weapons, in some states) from a person who they believe may present a danger. A judge makes the determination to issue the order based on statements and actions made by the gun owner in question. Refusal to comply with the order is punishable as a criminal offense. After a set time, the guns are returned to the person from whom they were seized unless another court hearing extends the period of confiscation.
As of May 2023, 21 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some form of red-flag law. The specifics of the laws, and the degree to which they are utilized, vary from state to state. Names vary by state, and include Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs, in Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia); Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Orders (ERFPOs, in New Mexico); Emergency Substantial Risk Orders (ESROs, in Virginia); Firearm Restraining Orders (FROs, in Illinois); Gun Violence Protective Orders (GVPOs, in Hawaii); Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs, in California); Lethal Violence Protective Orders (LVPOs, in Delaware), Risk Protection Orders (RPOs, in Florida); Risk Warrants (in Connecticut); and Proceedings for the Seizure and Retention of a Firearm (in Indiana).
In 1999, Connecticut became the first state to enact a red flag law, after a rampage shooting at the Connecticut Lottery. It was followed by Indiana, which adopted its legislation in 2005; called Jake Laird's Law, it was named after an Indianapolis police officer was fatally shot by a mentally disturbed man. Subsequent red-flag laws were adopted by California (2014), Washington (2016), and Oregon (2017). The California State Legislature was the first to enact a red flag law allowing family members to petition state courts to remove weapons from persons deemed a threat after Elliot Rodger committed a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California; the California law also permits law enforcement officials to petition the court for an order for the removal of guns from an individual for up to twelve months.
Before 2018, only the above-mentioned five states had some version of red flag laws. After the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, that number more than doubled, as more states enacted such laws: Florida, Vermont, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District of Columbia. A content analysis study published in 2022 examined newspaper articles published in 2018 in three states that passed ERPOs after the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida (Florida, Rhode Island, and Vermont) and three states that did not (Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Ohio). The study found that the passage of ERPOs was associated with media coverage that used official policy names/acronyms (as opposed to simply "red flag"); accurately portrayed gun violence as a preventable problem, and that referred to ERPO policies in other states. The survey found that "although only one in four articles cited scientific evidence related to gun violence generally, articles about passing states were significantly more likely to cite the small but growing body of research about ERPO implementation and effectiveness. These findings point to the value of relevant data, likely in combination with the lived experience and advocacy efforts of those most impacted, for building policy momentum through the media."
In 2019, New York enacted a red-flag law as part of a broader package of gun-control legislation that overwhelmingly passed the state legislature. In addition to allowing police and family members to petition for entry of an extreme risk protection order, the law also allows teachers and school administrations to file such petitions, making New York the first state to include such a provision. Three other states enacted red-flag laws in 2019: Colorado, Nevada and Hawaii. The Colorado, Nevada, and Hawaii laws all went into effect on January 1, 2020.
In 2020, New Mexico became the 18th state to adopt a red-flag law, after Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation on February 25, 2020. New Mexico's law went into effect on July 1, 2020.
In Virginia, the state's General Assembly, then controlled by Republicans, voted down red-flag legislation in its January 2019 session. After the Virginia Beach shooting later that year, Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, called the Republican-controlled General Assembly into special session to consider gun-control legislation. The legislature did not vote on any gun legislation. After the Democrats won control of both chambers of the General Assembly in the fall 2019 elections, for the first time in more than two decades, Northam vowed to reintroduce gun control proposals, including a red flag bill. The General Assembly subsequently passed an emergency substantial risk order (ESRO) law, on a party-line vote in the Senate and a nearly party-line vote in the House of Delegates. Northam signed the legislation into law in April 2020, alongside four separate gun measures. Fairfax County, Virginia and the Alexandria-based gun-violence prevention nonprofit group Safer Country have become leaders in awareness campaigns to inform the public and law enforcement about the use of Virginia's ESRO law.
Some local sheriffs in rural Colorado counties refused to use the state's risk-based gun violence prevention, with some declaring their counties "sanctuaries" from gun laws they opposed; many of the sheriffs reversed course after gun violence incidents in their communities. A 2022 analysis of court records by KHN found that, two and a half years after the passage of Colorado's risk-based gun violence prevention law, petitions for protection orders had been filed in 20 of the 37 counties with sheriffs who previously said that they would refuse to use or enforce such laws, and that such petitions were often filed "by the very sheriffs who had previously denounced the law." In El Paso County, Colorado, however, Sheriff Bill Elder followed a policy of barring the Sheriff's Office from filing petitions under Colorado's law based on Elder's belief that the laws are unconstitutional. (although Elder said that it would enforce orders granted by the courts on the petition of non-law enforcement). El Paso County was the location of a 2022 Colorado Springs shooting massacre in which a gunman killed five people and wounded many more. Despite a history of alarming behavior (such as bomb threats) that would have made him a candidate for a gun removal order under Colorado's law, the arrested man was never subject to a petition for an order and was thus legally permitted to obtain the guns used in the attack, raising new scrutiny of the sheriff's refusal to use the Colorado law.
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