Dems seek law for ‘extreme risk’ protection orders

Posted at 2:30 p.m. on September 19, 2019

The Brillion News

MADISON – Governor Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul, state Senator Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, and state Representative Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, are promoting legislation that would create a new Extreme Risk Protection Order to remove firearms temporarily when family members of law enforcement officers believe someone is at risk of harming himself or others.

Evers said 75 percent of the state’s gun deaths are suicides.

“This legislation empowers law enforcement officers, as well as family and household members, with a tool they can use to take action – and potentially save lives – when people exhibit warning signs showing that they present a threat to the safety of themselves or others,” Kaul said.

Under the proposed law, the ERPO could be effective for a year, and could be extended if the court believe the person is still a risk for his own safety or that of others. It bans the person under the ordar from possessing a firearm – if the court finds that the person is substantially likely to ionjure himself or others is he possesses a firearm.

The proponents say that 17 other states, plus the District of Columbia, already have ERPO laws..