By David Benjamin Joyce 

On October 25, 2023, Robert Card executed 18 civilians in mass shootings at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant in Lewiston, Maine. Three months before the rampage, Card spent 14 days in a New York psychiatric hospital. His violent tendencies were known to family members, the Army Reserves, and law enforcement officials in Maine. Despite the warning signs, Card never faced a firearm prohibition. He maintained control of a high-powered Ruger SFAR rifle, which he turned on victims ranging in age from 14 to 76. The Lewiston tragedy brought renewed focus on Maine’s risk-based firearm removal statute. Phase One of this dissertation examines barriers and facilitators to use of Maine’s statute from the perspective of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, medical providers, and researchers in Maine. Phase Two of this dissertation reviews risk-based restriction statutes in three comparison states – Connecticut, Maryland, and Vermont – and examines implementation outcomes. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders form the basis for the qualitative data in this study. The responses led to identification of key barriers and facilitators to effective implementation of risk-based firearm statutes. From these emerging themes, this dissertation offers eight recommendations to improve Maine’s risk-based firearm removal program. A plan for change is presented using an adaption of the Overseas Development Institute’s RAPID approach. The plan for change includes recommendations for legislative modification by the Maine legislature and implementation strategies to be employed by local stakeholder groups. Although no policy can eliminate the risk of gun violence, adoption of the recommendations in this dissertation will reduce the risk that the tragic events of October 25, 2023, repeat in the State of Maine.

Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2024. 140p.

By Everytown for Gun Safety and Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions 

Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws create an opportunity to intervene and prevent firearm violence when there are warning signs that an individual poses a risk of harm to self or others. While ERPO laws are relatively new, a growing body of research demonstrates the potential for these laws to prevent firearm violence, particularly firearm suicide, and multiple victim/mass shootings. Interest in ERPO laws has increased in recent years, with 16 states having enacted these laws between 2018 and 2023. Implementation varies widely across and within states. As a result of strong ERPO implementation efforts in some jurisdictions, more information is now available for state and local leaders about how to implement and adapt ERPO laws for their own communities. In addition, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 included $750 million in new federal grant funding for states, some of which is designated to support ERPO implementation. To meet this moment, the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions have partnered to compile this guide of the best available practices and promising approaches to effective implementation of extreme risk laws. These recommendations are informed by conversations with individuals who are pioneering ERPO implementation, in addition to the best practices shared at a December 2022 convening of ERPO leaders from around the country.   

New York: Everytown for Gun Safety. 2023, 52pg

By Andrew Willinger

Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) are civil court orders that temporarily prohibit gun purchase and possession by people who are behaving dangerously and at risk of committing imminent violence. As of September 2023, ERPOs are available in 21 states and the District of Columbia. This Article presents an overview of ERPO laws, the rationale behind their development, and a review and analysis that considers emerging constitutional challenges to these laws (under both the Second Amendment and due process protections) in the post-Bruen era. This Article notes that the presence of multiple constitutional challenges in many ERPOrelated cases has confused judicial analysis and argues that, especially in light of Bruen’s novel text, history, and tradition test, courts should be especially careful to clarify how cumulative-rights arguments are impacting their analysis. An examination of Second Amendment court decisions concerning another type of civil protection order, Domestic Violence Protection Orders, informs the approach used to further consider ERPO rights deprivation claims and the constitutionally relevant distinctions among different civil dispossession proceedings. The Article further considers the state of ERPO law in the context of the evolving evidence documenting the uptake and impact of ERPOs on gun violence in the United States, including a review of scholarship that seeks to  understand how ERPO statutes are being implemented and to determine whether the laws prevent interpersonal gun violence and suicide. Finally, this Article concludes with a commentary and set of recommendations to inform the practice and future scholarship of ERPO as a tool for preventing gun violence in the United States, in accord with constitutional protections in the post-Bruen age.

United States, Number 1 Public Health, History, and the Future Of Gun Regulation after Bruen. 2023, 64pg