The Biden Justice Department announced the creation of a National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center to help implement red flag laws in nearly two dozen states.
Red flag laws allow courts to temporarily confiscate firearms from individuals deemed a danger, without due process, which critics argue violates Second Amendment rights.
The National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, according to a Saturday Department of Justice press release, will specifically provide assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations and behavioral health professionals.
“ERPO laws, which are modeled off domestic violence protection orders, create a civil process allowing law enforcement, family members (in most states), and medical professionals or other groups (in some states) to petition a court to temporarily prohibit someone at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms for the duration of the order,” DOJ noted.
During her visit to Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed in a February 2018 mass shooting, Harris is expected to introduce the effort and call “on states to pass red flag laws” and use federal funding to implement existing laws, according to the White House.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the effort will provide “valuable resources” to those seeking to keep firearms out of the hands of those deemed a threat to themselves and others.
