The Department of Justice instituted its own training center Saturday to help local law enforcement implement gun control practices.
Known as the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, this latest office will put the DOJ’s $2 million allotment to use under its Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program. The ERPO center was established with the help of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. A simplified website guides prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers, social service providers, and household members on how to file protection orders against gun owners they deem at risk.
“The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said of the center.
This comes two years after Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which created a funding formula for crisis intervention programs for states. In addition to helping states intervene when someone reports a gun owner they deem at risk, the programs apply to mental health courts, drug courts, and veterans treatment courts.
“What the hell is this evil? A Federal Red Flag center; We did not authorize this,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on X. Massie also noted that the Saturday announcement came hours after the Senate successfully funded the government in an early morning bipartisan vote.
“What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ is hard to understand?” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) wrote, referring to the Second Amendment.
“Merrick Garland just announced a massive Red Flag Operation that the DOJ will be running by using EVERY spy tool the US government has in order to violate American’s Second Amendment!!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote.
“Oh really?” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) responded.
Neither Roy, Greene, Cammack, or Massie voted for the 2022 bill that initiated ERPO. Of the then 14 Republican members who voted to pass the measure, only four remain in the House: Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), Dave Joyce (R-OH), Mike Turner (R-OH), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL).
“Nope,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) responded. While he voted against the bill at the time, his fellow Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who is retiring from his seat this year, was among the 15 Republicans who voted for it.
When Massie and Greene implied the center’s launch came just as the Senate voted to fund the government, the center had, in addition to its $2 million DOJ allotment, contributions from the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.
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This comes on the heels of an independent panel’s report that a Maine law could have allowed the sheriff to seize the guns from a man who killed 18 people in a mass shooting in Lewiston. According to the panel, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s office already had the prerogative to act under Maine’s “yellow flag” law, which allows for the confiscation of firearms from a person who is seen as a danger to themselves or the public following a medical assessment.
The Washington Examiner contacted the Johns Hopkins Center for comment.
