Lawmakers look to expand ‘red flag’ law

Club Q a main reason

BY ANDREW KENNEY COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

Colorado lawmakers on March 7 debated whether to expand the state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order law, along with two other proposed gun laws.

e existing ERPO law is meant to disarm people who might be a risk to themselves or others, before anything happens. But it has seen relatively little use in Colorado since it was instituted in 2020, leading Democrats to propose changes this year.

“ e changes we have made … are a result of the actions taken or not taken prior to the Club Q shooting last November,” said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Democrat, at the beginning of a day-long committee hearing.

Sullivan is a sponsor of a bill, SB23-170, which would expand the state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order law. It was the focus of the hearing’s rst hours.

What the bill would do e biggest proposed changes are: e new bill broadens that, allowing a range of new professionals to le the petitions, including psychologists, social workers, family therapists, counselors, doctors, physician assistants, teachers, school counselors, administrators, school nurses and college faculty, and district attorneys, among others.

• Expanding the list of people who can initiate the “red ag” process.

• Requiring the state to spend money on a public education campaign about the law.

A red ag case begins when someone les a petition in court. Currently, those petitions can be led by law enforcement o cers, and also by individuals close to the person in question. at includes current and former romantic relations, roommates and family members. If a petition is led by anyone else, it is automatically dismissed.

Backers say these professionals are well-positioned to spot warning signs, and that giving them the power to seek a red ag order can serve as a backstop in areas where law enforcement isn’t using the law.

“We have some communities around our state that either can’t, or won’t, le or enforce extreme risk protection orders,” said Senate President Steve Fenberg, referring to the fact that many law agencies have never led an ERPO petition. Adding new petitioners “provides di erent options,” he said.

Proposal draws objections from sheri s in conservative areas, among others

Sheri Darren Weekly of Douglas County said that people might avoid seeing a counselor if they’re worried it could result in a red ag petition.

“ e very people who will need help will be reluctant to seek it,” he said.

Weekly’s predecessor, Sheri Tony Spurlock, was a key supporter of the original ERPO law.

Weekly also argued that the existing law violates due process protections. A judge can order someone’s guns be taken for up to two weeks without giving them an immediate chance to respond.

e red ag law says that a judge must nd a “preponderance” of evidence of a “signi cant” risk before issuing a two-week ban. A one-year ban requires “clear and convincing” evidence, and can’t be issued until the judge holds a court hearing and gives the person an opportunity to

Sheri Joseph Roybal of El Paso County disputed the idea that an expanded red ag law could have stopped the Club Q shooting.

“ is proposed bill is here to try to predict the future or rewrite the past, both of which are awed,” he

Authorities in El Paso County have come under heavy criticism because they did not le a red ag petition against the suspect. e suspect had allegedly threatened a mass shooting and engaged in an armed stando with police a year earlier, and authorities con scated the suspect’s weapons at the time. But the court case was dismissed and the suspect faced no known restrictions on acquiring new weapons at the time of the shooting.

However, in his testimony, Roybal indicated the suspect could have acquired the guns illegally — which a red ag order would not have stopped.

“I will tell you, the weapons that were used in that incident would not have applied to ERPO,” Roybal said. He added later: “People are making the assumption the weapons that (the suspect used were) obtained legally.”

9News and other outlets have reported that so-called “ghost guns” were used in the attack.

Social worker, teacher, medical groups support proposal, while gun rights group threatens to sue e gun rights group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners has threatened to sue the state, should law-