On The Ground: ERPO in New York

In April 2025 a woman in Monroe County, New York received a disturbing video from her sister who was holding a gun to her own head saying she was going to kill herself. In response, she contacted police who obtained an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) and removed the gun from her sister.

ERPOs, commonly known as “red flag” laws, prohibit a person who has been identified to pose a risk of harm to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing a firearm, and it also gives law enforcement clear legal authority to temporarily remove firearms from the person. 

Local upstate New York news station 10NBC tells the story. 

ERPO was developed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions with colleagues in 2013 and over the last decade the Center has supported more than 18 state gun violence prevention organizations pass ERPO and other gun safety laws across the country. 

The Center played a key role in helping enact ERPO in NY through the support we provided to New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV) to pass ERPO in 2019, and an expanded version of the law allowing clinicians to submit ERPO’s and encouraging law enforcement’s use the policy in 2022.

The Center’s Safer States Initiative’s team supported NYAGV by: 

• Providing public health gun violence research translated into materials such as talking points for state advocates and lawmakers supporting the effectiveness of ERPO to save lives
• Drafting language for the ERPO bill
• Presenting ERPO policy education webinars
• Providing communications support to help respond to press inquiries and secure media coverage in support of ERPO legislation.  

"The Safer States Initiative is special because it’s a national program that recognizes relationships and organizations that already exist on the ground. It helps create a deeper bench of policy expertise and infrastructure while also uplifting the local leadership that’s already doing the work. I think that’s an excellent model. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. It’s more effective."  – Rebecca Fischer, Executive Director, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence 

As the Center’s Director of Implementation, Lisa Geller, MPH, shares in the news story above, Center research shows that for every 17 ERPOs issued, one suicide is prevented. Since the ERPO law took effect in 2019, Monroe County has issued 232 ERPOs, potentially saving an estimated 13 lives. Statewide, more than 29,000 ERPOs have been issued, with an estimated 1,600 suicides prevented. Now 22 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands have ERPO laws and over 70,000 ERPOs have been issued. In the past three years the Center’s Safer States Initiative team has helped pass 35 gun violence prevention laws in states across the country. These new policies include enacting ERPO in Michigan and passing a permit-to-purchase law, in Washington.