Judges in 19 states and the District of Columbia are issuing orders to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed dangerous, like a Fort Lauderdale teenager who threatened a school shooting.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Behind guarded gates and a chain-link fence, Seagull Alternative High School is a collection of low-rise buildings that provides an academic home for pregnant adolescents and pupils at risk of dropping out. On a Tuesday in early October, the school was the focus of the type of threat that school administrators fear.
According to police documents, a 17-year-old who had previously attended the school posted in an Instagram message to a classmate, “I just might come to yo school and kill everybody.” A disturbing photograph was provided to the principal and a behavioural specialist, depicting a handgun and an assault weapon on a bed with Seagull Alternative High School scrawled across the top.
Fort Lauderdale law enforcement personnel acted swiftly upon learning of the threat. Using Florida’s so-called red flag law, the police got a judge’s permission to confiscate any firearms from the young man’s possession.
Extreme risk protection orders, or ERPOs, are a means to prevent mass shootings in a nation that has been plagued by them, according to gun safety activists and public health professionals. There are now red flag legislation in 19 states and the District of Columbia, up from only two states a decade ago.
Advocates are urging more states to enact them this year, including Michigan and Minnesota, where Democrats recently seized control of state legislatures. Only two Republican-controlled states, Florida and Indiana, have these statutes.
