Courtney Votes to Empower Communities to Take Action Against Gun Violence, Helps Pass the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act

Press Release

Today, following the murder of ten Black Americans by a white supremacist in New York; the murder of nineteen innocent elementary school students and two teachers in Texas by a teenaged gunman wielding a semi-automatic rifle; the murder of four people by a gunman at a medical facility in Oklahoma; and other mass shootings and gun deaths, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) voted to pass the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (H.R. 2377). The bill would help protect communities, innocent lives, and at-risk individuals against gun violence and self-harm by empowering family members and law enforcement officers to seek a federal court order to temporarily remove access to firearms from people who pose a danger to themselves or others, while incentivizing states to adopt their own "red flag laws."

As of June 1st, there have so far been at least 18 mass shootings in the United States in 2022 alone. A study by Everytown for Gun Safety found that most mass shooters exhibit warning signs before carrying out an attack. However, according to Pew Research, suicide has long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths--in 2020, 54% (24,292) of gun-related deaths in the U.S. (45,222) were suicides. Connecticut was the first state in the U.S. to enact a so-called "red flag law" in 1999, following a mass shooting at the Connecticut Lottery. Since then, Connecticut's "red flag law" is estimated to have prevented at least 78 suicide deaths. In June 2021, the Connecticut General Assembly voted to pass the first substantial update to the law in 20 years--the bill passed 93-55 in the State House of Representatives, and 23-12 in the State Senate.

"The mass shootings and carnage against innocent lives we're seeing in our country is completely abnormal, and we know there are actual steps we can take to start making it at least less likely to occur," said Rep. Courtney. "One of those steps is empowering family members and law enforcement officers who might encounter dangerous individual in their everyday lives to take action, speak out, and keep deadly firearms out of the hands of people deemed to pose an extreme risk to our communities and themselves. So-called "red-flag laws' might not prevent tragedy in every instance, but we know that in so many awful cases from Buffalo, to Uvalde, to Sandy Hook, these individuals exhibited warning signs. Red flag laws can also help prevent suicide, and they already have here in Connecticut--our state was the first in the nation to enact these sorts of sensible extreme risk laws, and it's helped prevent dozens of self-inflicted gun deaths. Now other states like Colorado, Florida, Virginia, and fourteen others have followed us, and the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act would establish the same protective mechanism within the federal court system. This is a commonsense, straightforward approach to curbing gun violence, and I urge my Senate colleagues to follow the House's lead and pass this bill."

In recent weeks, Americans have witnessed horrific mass shootings in New York, Texas, and Oklahoma. While studies have found that most mass shooters exhibit warning signs before carrying out an attack, family and law enforcement lack the ability to temporarily disarm individuals considering acts of violence without an extreme risk law. The Extreme Risk Protection Order Act would allow family members and law enforcement officers to petition a federal court for an extreme risk protection order, empowering federal judges to prevent tragic shootings and suicides by temporarily removing firearms from potentially dangerous individuals. Additionally, this legislation will establish a new grant program at the U.S. Department of Justice, incentivizing more states to allow their courts to take this same life-saving action.

The Extreme Risk Protection Order Act combines the provisions of two bills: the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (H.R. 2377) and the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (H.R. 3480). The bill would:

Authorize and establish procedures for federal courts to issue extreme risk protection orders.
Allow for family members and law enforcement officers to petition a federal court for an extreme risk protection order to temporarily remove access to firearms for an individual who is deemed a danger to themselves or others by the court.
Create a grant program within the U.S. Department of Justice to incentivize more states to adopt their own extreme risk protection order laws. Currently, 19 states--including Connecticut--have already implemented such laws. Others include California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

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