(NewsNation) — The Justice Department has launched a new national resource center to help states implement red flag laws, which are intended to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat. Opponents have argued the laws infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
The National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center will provide “training” and “technical assistance” to those who are responsible for carrying out red flag laws — law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, community organizations, behavioral health professionals and others — according to a DOJ release.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the new center will provide partners with “valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who leads the new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, announced the national resource center during a Saturday visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members and wounded 17 others in 2018.
“We must be willing to have the courage to say that on every level, whether you talk about changing laws or changing practices and protocols, that we must do better,” Harris said at the high school in Parkland, Florida.
So far, 21 states and the District of Columbia have enacted extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws — commonly referred to as “red flag laws” — which are modeled off domestic violence protection orders. They allow certain people to petition a court to have firearms taken from someone they consider to be a possible threat.
In Florida, with a judge’s permission, police officers can temporarily seize guns belonging to anyone who is shown to be a danger to others or themselves. The statute has been used more than 12,000 times since it was enacted six years ago following the Parkland shooting, according to the Associated Press.
The Biden administration has called for a national red flag law to help crack down on violence.
The DOJ said the center and its newly launched website will give states, local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers and others “direct access” to “critical information” that will “enhance their ability to reduce firearm homicides and suicides.”
Several Republican lawmakers blasted the announcement as unconstitutional and called it an effort to seize guns from American citizens.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said the center is a “direct threat to the Second Amendment and liberty as we know it.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Co., called the new initiative “gun confiscation by another name.”