A crowd of orange-clad violence interrupters and community members filled the seats of Audubon Park Recreation Center Wednesday, July 15, for a town hall on the use and role of Emergency Risk Protection Orders (ERPO) in preventing gun violence.
Passed by the state legislature in 2023 and enacted in 2024, ERPOs, often referred to as red flag laws, are a relatively new tool that seeks to temporarily remove firearms from unstable, in-crisis or otherwise violent individuals through a non-criminal process.
For two years, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has worked to implement and raise awareness of the law as a gun violence prevention tool.
“It’s a powerful tool if people know what it is and how to access it,” said Moriarty at the town hall.
What are ERPOs?
Emergency Risk Protection Orders are a civil procedure that spouses, parents, housemates, law enforcement and children can use to temporarily remove firearms from an individual in crisis without filing criminal charges.
The concept of ERPOs came from the 2013 Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy seeking to develop new practices and policies to prevent gun violence following the fatal mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
Since then, 22 states have implemented some version of ERPOs. In Minnesota, ERPOs are designed to be fast-moving, with orders ruled on often hours after filing, usually on the same day.
“These happen fast,” said Rana Alexander, assistant county attorney at Hennepin County Attorney’s Office who has been the lead in implementing ERPOs.
Once an order has been filed, law enforcement will deliver the order to the recipient where firearms are either voluntarily turned over or a search warrant is executed to find them.
ERPOs can last 14 days up to a year, depending on if they are emergency or long-term. After that period, the recipient’s firearms will be returned and they can legally carry if following state and federal law.
After the recipient has been served and has turned over their firearm or firearms, a hearing before a judge is scheduled within 14 days for them to argue against the order. According to Alexander, recipients rarely show up to these hearings to fight the order.
Sixty-nine orders have been issued in Hennepin County to date. “We haven’t had a trial yet,” said Alexander.
While ERPOs are generally a reactive tool for a person in crisis, once executed, they also stop that individual from purchasing firearms for the duration of the crisis. They have also been used to prevent self-harm or suicide.
Useful but limited
Many at the town hall praised ERPOs for their ability to prevent gun violence. However, they said the orders don’t address many of the factors that contribute to gun deaths, including the proliferation of firearms in the community, unsafe storage and lack of mental health and community resources.
Another potential downside was that the process necessarily involves law enforcement to serve the order and potentially execute the search warrant.
“Law enforcement is going to be involved. There’s no way around it,” said Alexander.
For those wary or untrusting of local law enforcement, their involvement is not just an impediment, but a dealbreaker.
“These precautions are just going to perpetuate imprisonment,” Jarmell Mayweather said. Mayweather is the president and founder of Re’Ventry, a community-based nonprofit seeking to reduce recidivism, for formerly incarcerated people returning to illegal activities.
Daiquan King, a member of the Minneapolis violence interrupters, agreed, saying that more proactive approaches like those taken by the violence interrupters should be focused on.
“If y’all actually put more contracts out (for) more funds, more people would actually open their eyes and do this type of work … instead of 20-40 people, we need a nation of people.”
Elliott Payne, Minneapolis City Council president, admitted that ERPOs are a reactive last step, saying more funds should be spent in proactive gun violence prevention.
“We’re kind of too late by the time someone has a gun and they’re a risk,” said Payne.
Moriarty emphasized safe gun storage in particular as a way to prevent gun deaths, with gun locks distributed at the meeting.
“Hiding a gun is not securing a gun,” said Bridget Liverca, legal service specialist with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death in U.S. children and youths, with firearms being the leading injury cause according to a 2023 CDC study. According to the same study, these injuries and deaths often come from children finding loaded firearms in nightstands or other sleeping areas.
“Someone as young as two or three can pull a trigger,” said Alexander.
Storing guns in safes, locking them with trigger locks or cables prevents children from firing or even accessing them.
Safe gun storage can also be a significant hurdle to suicide with a firearm with the time spent finding a key or unlocking a safe providing a final hurdle.
“The real risk of gun violence is often suicide,” said Moriarty.
For more information on filing ERPOs, visit dps.mn.gov/resources-for/firearm-safety/extreme-risk-protection-orders or call 612-348-5073.