What is a red flag law?
A red flag law lets a court issue an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO): a temporary, civil order that removes a person’s guns and bars new purchases when a judge finds they pose a serious risk of harming themselves or others. It is not a criminal charge, and it does not require a mental-illness diagnosis.
Key facts
- 22 states and D.C. have red flag laws; six states have laws that ban or penalize enforcing one (National ERPO Resource Center).
- The most concrete finding in the research: roughly one suicide is prevented for every 10-20 orders issued (Kivisto & Phalen, Psychiatric Services, 2018).
- Suicides are 58% of U.S. gun deaths, a record high for the third straight year (Johns Hopkins, 2025).
- People subject to an ERPO have a suicide rate 31-40x higher than the general public (studies of Connecticut and Indiana).
- Only about 7% of Americans say they are “very familiar” with how the laws work, which keeps them underused (Johns Hopkins, 2023).
The phrase “red flag law” makes it sound like surveillance. It is closer to a restraining order for guns. A person who is spiraling, making threats, or in a suicidal crisis can have their firearms held for a set time, then returned when the danger passes.
How an ERPO works
An ERPO is a civil court process, modeled on the domestic-violence restraining order. It moves in two stages, balancing speed against due process.
- A petition is filed. Who can ask varies by state: law enforcement and family in every ERPO state, and clinicians, educators, or co-workers in some. The petitioner files a sworn affidavit describing specific warning signs.
- A judge reviews it the same day. This first review is ex parte, meaning without the gun owner present, so the person is not tipped off and pushed to act. If the judge finds an immediate risk, a temporary order issues and police remove the firearms.
- A full hearing follows within days. Within roughly 3 to 21 days, both sides appear. The respondent has the right to a lawyer and can cross-examine and present evidence. To extend the order, the state must now meet a high bar, “clear and convincing evidence.”
- A final order lasts up to a year, then expires. If the danger persists, the order runs about one year. The respondent can petition once to end it early. When it lapses and no one renews it, the guns are returned automatically.
Red Flag Orders Are Not Mental-Health Holds
The most common confusion is between a red flag order and an involuntary psychiatric hold, like California’s 5150 or Florida’s Baker Act. They are different tools.
Red flag orders and mental-health holds do different things.
| Red flag order (ERPO) | Mental-health hold (e.g. 5150) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Temporarily removes firearms | Involuntary psychiatric evaluation |
| Mental illness required? | No, dangerous behavior is the test | Yes, a mental-health crisis is required |
| Detains the person? | No, they are not hospitalized | Yes, held for evaluation and treatment |
| Who decides | A civil court, with a hearing | Clinicians and police, then a court for extensions |
The distinction matters because most people in a gun crisis are not committable, and most people with mental illness are never dangerous. An ERPO targets the specific risk, the access to a firearm, without forcing hospitalization or pinning a psychiatric label on someone.
Which states have red flag laws
Red flag laws are split sharply along the same lines as the rest of gun policy. Twenty-two states and D.C. have one. Six states have gone the other way, passing laws that forbid or even criminalize enforcing an ERPO.
Sources: National ERPO Resource Center; Giffords Law Center; The Trace.
| State | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| California | Has a red flag law | Gun Violence Restraining Order (2016). |
| Colorado | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2019). |
| Connecticut | Has a red flag law | Risk Protection Order (1999), the nation's first. |
| Delaware | Has a red flag law | Lethal Violence Protective Order (2018), extended to 5 years in 2025. |
| District of Columbia | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2019). |
| Florida | Has a red flag law | Risk Protection Order (2018), passed after Parkland. |
| Hawaii | Has a red flag law | Gun Violence Protective Order (2020). |
| Illinois | Has a red flag law | Firearms Restraining Order (2019). |
| Indiana | Has a red flag law | Risk Warrant (2005), an early red flag law. |
| Maine | Has a red flag law | ERPO passed by ballot (2025), replacing the weaker "yellow flag" law. |
| Maryland | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2018); among the highest usage rates. |
| Massachusetts | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2018). |
| Michigan | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2024). |
| Minnesota | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2024). |
| Nevada | Has a red flag law | High-Risk Behavior order (2020). |
| New Jersey | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2019). |
| New Mexico | Has a red flag law | Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order (2020). |
| New York | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2019), strengthened in 2025. |
| Oregon | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2018). |
| Rhode Island | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2018). |
| Vermont | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2018). |
| Virginia | Has a red flag law | Substantial Risk Order (2020). |
| Washington | Has a red flag law | ERPO (2018); a few counties account for most filings. |
| Oklahoma | Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement | Prohibits local ERPO enforcement (2020). |
| West Virginia | Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement | Bans red flag gun seizures (2021). |
| Tennessee | Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement | Prohibits adopting or funding red flag laws (2024). |
| Wyoming | Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement | Prohibits red flag gun seizures (2024). |
| Texas | Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement | Makes serving or enforcing an ERPO a felony (2025). |
| Montana | Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement | Bans local red flag ordinances and ERPO enforcement (2025). |
| Alabama | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Alaska | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Arizona | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Arkansas | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Georgia | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Idaho | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Iowa | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Kansas | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Kentucky | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Louisiana | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Mississippi | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Missouri | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Nebraska | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| New Hampshire | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| North Carolina | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| North Dakota | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Ohio | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Pennsylvania | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| South Carolina | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| South Dakota | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Utah | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
| Wisconsin | No statewide red flag law | No statewide red flag / ERPO law. |
Connecticut passed the first one in 1999. The wave came after the 2018 Parkland shooting, and most current laws date from then. Maine voters added the newest in 2025 by ballot measure, replacing a weaker “yellow flag” system. On the other side, Texas in 2025 made serving an ERPO a felony.
Does it work?
This is where red flag laws have the strongest evidence in all of gun policy, and where the story is mostly about suicide, not mass shootings.
A firearm suicide attempt is fatal far more often than other methods, so removing guns during a crisis directly saves lives. Multiple studies bear this out.
- 13.7%
- drop in firearm suicides in Connecticut as enforcement rose
- ~675
- suicides prevented across four states, with no rise in other methods
- 0 of 21
- Californians who threatened a mass shooting and then carried it out after an order
The Connecticut and Indiana studies (Kivisto and Phalen, Psychiatric Services, 2018) found firearm-suicide drops of 13.7% and 7.5%, and a ratio of about one life saved per 10 to 20 orders. A four-state Duke study (Swanson and colleagues, 2024) estimated one life saved for every 17 orders. A 2025 population study in JAMA Health Forum found 3.79 fewer firearm suicides per 100,000 people and, crucially, no increase in non-firearm suicides, meaning people did not simply switch methods.
On mass shootings, a California study (Wintemute and colleagues, 2019) followed 21 cases where someone threatened one and an order was issued. None carried it out. The evidence here is suggestive rather than conclusive, because you cannot prove a shooting that never happened, but the pattern is consistent.
One honest caveat: a minority of studies, including work by economist John Lott, find no statistically significant effect. The weight of peer-reviewed public-health research points the other way, but the debate is real.
The equity problem nobody talks about
The strongest critique of red flag laws is not that they fail. It is who ends up on the wrong end of them.
A UC Davis study of how orders are actually served found a stark racial split. For white respondents, petitions were often filed by family and treated as a health intervention. For Black and Hispanic respondents, petitions were initiated almost entirely by law enforcement, came with far higher rates of a concurrent arrest, and were least likely to involve a lawyer at the hearing.
There is a second, quieter problem: the laws are barely used in many places. Surveys find only about 7% of the public, and a majority of physicians, know how to use them. In some states a handful of counties account for most filings while others never file at all. A law on the books that no one knows about saves no one.
The legal fight
Red flag laws had to survive a Supreme Court that has reshaped gun rights, and they did.
- District of Columbia v. Heller The Court establishes an individual right to keep a handgun at home (5-4).
- NY State Rifle & Pistol v. Bruen A new "history and tradition" test: gun laws must match a historical analogue (6-3).
- United States v. Rahimi The Court upholds disarming people under a domestic-violence restraining order (8-1), the logic that protects ERPOs.
Sources: Supreme Court; SCOTUSblog.
The Second Amendment cases behind red flag laws: 2008 — District of Columbia v. Heller (The Court establishes an individual right to keep a handgun at home (5-4).). 2022 — NY State Rifle & Pistol v. Bruen (A new "history and tradition" test: gun laws must match a historical analogue (6-3).). 2024 — United States v. Rahimi (The Court upholds disarming people under a domestic-violence restraining order (8-1), the logic that protects ERPOs.).
After Bruen, every gun law had to point to a historical analogue. In United States v. Rahimi (2024, 8-1), Chief Justice Roberts clarified that a modern law needs a historical principle, not an identical twin. Founding-era courts disarmed people found dangerous, so disarming a person a court finds dangerous today fits the tradition. That reasoning is the legal ground red flag laws stand on. Their weak point is the ex parte first stage, which advocates answer with the fast follow-up hearing.
What red flag laws are not
Several myths drive the opposition, and clearing them is the honest case for the laws.
They are not gun confiscation. The order is temporary, the guns are returned, and there is no registry of owners.
They are not based on a diagnosis. The test is dangerous behavior, not mental illness, which is why most people with mental illness are never affected.
They are not a tool for spurned exes and angry neighbors. A judge must find clear and convincing evidence, and filing a false petition is a crime. Studies find false or improper filings are rare and nearly always denied.
They are not, by themselves, enough. Without training for police, awareness for families, and funding to implement them, the laws sit unused, which is their biggest real-world failure.
Frequently asked questions
Can the police take my guns without warning me? Only temporarily, and only after a judge reviews sworn evidence of immediate danger. A full hearing with your lawyer follows within days, and the state must then meet a high evidentiary bar to keep the order.
Do I have to be mentally ill for an ERPO? No. Red flag laws are based on dangerous behavior, not a diagnosis. That is the main difference from an involuntary psychiatric hold.
How long does an order last? A temporary order lasts until the hearing, usually within a few weeks. A final order typically lasts up to one year, then the firearms are returned automatically unless it is renewed.
Do red flag laws actually reduce gun deaths? The strongest evidence is for suicide prevention, with studies finding one life saved per 10 to 20 orders and no shift to other methods. Evidence on mass shootings is promising but harder to prove.
What you can do
- Back a federal framework. The Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (H.R. 7599) would create a federal ERPO process and fund state red flag programs. Ask your U.S. House member and senators to co-sponsor it. Use the letter below.
- Push for funding and training, not just a law. The biggest failure is underuse. Tell your state legislators and local police to fund officer training and public-awareness campaigns, and to send clinicians or social workers to serve orders. Find them at openstates.org.
- Know how to use it. If your state has a red flag law and someone you love is in danger, you may be able to petition. The National ERPO Resource Center explains each state’s process.
- If someone is in crisis, act now. Call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If your state has a red flag law, ask law enforcement about an emergency order. Removing access to a gun during a crisis is the single most effective step.