- Extreme Risk Protective Orders (ERPO’s) or better known as Red Flag Laws keep those that pose a risk to themselves or others from purchasing firearms.
- Between 2009 and 2020, 56% of mass shooters showed warning signs that would have been grounds for an ERPO,* including the Allina Health Care shooting in Buffalo, MN. ERPOs give the perpetrators’ family or law enforcement a mechanism to petition for protection.
- ERPOs have shown evidence of preventing suicides in the states they are adopted in.**
- In states like Massachusettes, one suicide has been prevented for between every 10-11 ERPOs issued.
- The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act provides MN with $3.7 million for implementation of an ERPO law, funding currently going unused.***
- ERPOs initiate a civil rather than criminal procedure that can and will make Minnesota’s communities safer.
Sources
*Mass Shootings in America. (2022, June 3). Everytown Research & Policy. https://everytownresearch.org/maps/mass-shootings-in-america
Dakin Andone, Broaddus, A., & Hassan, C. (2021, February 11). Criminal complaint describes chaotic scene in Buffalo, Minnesota, clinic shooting. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/us/buffalo-minnesota-shooting-thursday/index.html
**Swanson, J. W., Norko, M. A., Lin, H-J., Alanis-Hirsch, K. Frisman, L. K., Baranoski, M. V., Easter, M. M., Robertson, A. G., Swartz, M. S., Bonnie, R. J. (2017). Implementation and Effectiveness of Connecticut’s Risk-Based Gun Removal Law: Does it Prevent Suicides?, 80 Law and Contemporary Problems 179-208. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol80/iss2/8
Swanson, J. W., Easter, M. M., Alanis-Hirsch, K., Belden, C. M., Norko, M. A., Robertson, A. G., Frisman, L. K., Lin, H.-J., Swartz, M. S., & Parker, G. F. (2019). Criminal Justice and Suicide Outcomes with Indiana’s Risk-Based Gun Seizure Law. Iupui.edu. https://doi.org/https://hdl.handle.net/1805/22638
***Text – S.2938 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. (2021). Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2938/text
BJA FY 2022 -FY 2023 Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) Formula Allocations. (2022). https://bja.ojp.gov/funding/fy-2022-2023- byrne-scip-allocations.pdf
