On Saturday, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would be creating a new center for the purpose of training state and local government officials on how to implement and enforce “red flag” laws that allow the government to infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
According to the Daily Caller, the new center, the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, will operate under the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Its mission will be to educate local officials on how such laws work, and how to act upon them when they find an individual they wish to target. “Red flag” laws are laws that seek to single out certain individuals from purchasing or owning a firearm based on a belief that they may be a threat to themselves or others.
The ERPO will focus on training “law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals,” according to its mission statement.
“The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in the press release announcing the creation of the ERPO. “The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”
Advocates claim that such laws are essential for preventing mass shootings by mentally unstable individuals by putting them on law enforcement’s radar before they can act out, while opponents say that the laws preemptively violate Americans’ Second Amendment right to purchase and own a gun; skeptics also say that such laws can be abused against stable, normal people for political purposes rather than for legitimate mental health concerns.