On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris touted the administration’s new National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which will “support the effective implementation of state red flag laws” and “keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.” But there is a problem: Congress never authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to create this resource center. The administration confuses “grants … to implement state … mental health courts, drug courts, veterans’ courts, and extreme risk protection order programs” with creating an entirely new center for one of these areas.
This isn’t the first time the Biden administration has gone beyond what the law allows and done more harm than good.
The Department of Justice press release claims that Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs, also known as red flag laws) will “reduce firearm homicides and suicides.” Surveys show likely voters support laws that “allow guns to be temporarily confiscated by a judge from people considered by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others” by at least 2-1 margins.
But despite what the Biden administration and gun control advocates claim, all 50 states and the federal government have long made it possible to take a dangerous person’s guns away. Civil commitment laws go by various names, such as the Baker Act in Florida or the 5150 code in California.
If you worry that someone is dangerous, you can tell the police your concerns. If the police agree that there is a “reasonable”
