Category: National Extreme Risk Protection

Jordan Launches Probe Into DOJ’s ‘National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center’

Jordan Launches Probe Into DOJ’s National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center

US Republican Representative of Ohio Jim Jordan. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:42 PM – Thursday, March 28, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/jordan-launches-probe-into-dojs-national-extreme-risk-protection-order-resource-center/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which was just announced by the Biden administration, is the subject of an investigation that was prompted on Thursday morning by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

On Saturday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced its opening and the $750 million in funding allocated for the center.

Attorney General Merrick Garland highly applauded the center’s launch.

“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. "The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence,” Merrick said.

However, the co-founders of the John Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Cassandra Crifasi and Joshua Horwitz, received a letter from Representative Jordan on Thursday.

“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) grant programs and operations, including the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). "We are aware that BJA has awarded you a taxpayer funded grant to operate the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, which will support the effective implementation of state red flag laws. "The Committee has serious concerns about the infringement on due process and Second Amendment rights that red flag or extreme risk protection order laws enable,” Jordan’s letter read.

Jordan went on to stress in the letter the numerous issues with red flag laws, including the dangers they represent in due process.

“These laws are ripe for abuse as the list of individuals who can petition a court for an extreme risk protection is expansive. For example, in Hawaii, a former roommate or even a disgruntled employee can file for an extreme risk protection order. In California, a former roommate, employee, a former girlfriend, or even someone in a ‘dating relationship’ with an individual is able to file a petition for an extreme risk protection order. Additionally, many jurisdictions merely require that a showing of probable cause be met in order to seize an individual’s firearms and ammunition and to prohibit that individual from purchasing or possessing any firearms or ammunition. Probable cause is an astonishingly low standard to deprive an individual of his or her constitutional rights without an allegation of criminal activity or an opportunity for the individual to be heard. Currently, fifteen states have laws that will grant an extreme risk protection order using this low standard,” the letter continued.

Jordan then listed questions for which he must have responses by April 11th, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.:

  1. Explanations of how they are ensuring that funds that have already been distributed to jurisdictions “are following the constitutional and due process safeguards [set forward in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act].”
  2. Explanation of how Crifasi and Horowitz’s office are “adhering to the provision of the law that requires penalties for abuse of the program.’”
  3. “All documents and communications from June 25th, 2022 to present between Executive Office of the President employees and Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions employees referring or relating to the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center.”
  4. “All documents and communications from June 25th, 2022 to present between DOJ employees and Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions employees referring to or relating to the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center.”

Jordan also clarified that the materials that Crifasi and Horowtiz turn in must contain records pertaining to the grant proposal for John Hopkins FY 2022, which seeks funding for an Extreme Risk Protective Order and Firearm Crisis Intervention Training and Technical Assistance Institute.

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FOIA Seeks Information from DOJ on National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center

Ammoland Inc.Posted on by
SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/foia-seeks-information-from-doj-on-national-extreme-risk-protection-order-resource-center; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
Spreading the Biden Administration’s citizen disarmament agenda throughout the land. (United States Department of Justice/Facebook)

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed Tuesday with the Department of Justice by this correspondent to obtain information on the newly announced National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center.

“[The Center]  will provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others,” the Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice announced Saturday.

“The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence,” Attorney General Merrick Garland declared.

Democrats continually remind the public that the bill was “bipartisan” because it helps them sell infringements as “commonsense gun safety laws” to voters not steeped in such matters beyond how the media influences them. Gun owners who are protective of their rights, consider the “compromises” made by Republicans, many of whom owe their seats to Second Amendment activism, and continued inexcusable examples of betrayals that are, at best, foolish and naive. In this case, it’s one more example of the all-too-foreseeable consequences when Republicans, trying to appear “reasonable,” either let Democrats outsmart them or hide that they were in on the fix from the start.

That ERPOs, or “red flag laws,” or however they normalized to allow for the denial of a fundamental right without a citizen even being charged with a crime let alone convicted of one, is a gun prohibitionist’s dream. That even Donald Trump, who has pledged Second Amendment fidelity to adoring masses of gun owners, has advocated “take the gun first, go through due process second,” ought to wake them up, but all too often provokes an angry response from the true believers."

Because information regarding the formation of the Center is of public interest, particularly to gun owners who have a personal and legal stake in the way it operates, with whom, and how it achieves mission objectives, the FOIA request seeks records to include:

  • All records regarding the creation of the “National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center,” including but not limited to all communications, emails, memoranda, recorded telephone calls, text messages, and notes;
  • All records, including, but not limited to, all communications, emails, memoranda, recorded telephone calls, text messages, and notes from any individual or group to and from the Department of Justice regarding the “National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center;” and
  • Any legal citations/correspondence/analysis used in the development of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center’s purpose, scope, and objective demonstrate consistency with the Supreme Court’s green standard of text, history, and tradition at the time the Constitution was ratified.

Who the DOJ is partnering with and how their activities are lawful in light of the Supreme Court’s latest ruling on the Second Amendment are of particular interest.

The FOIA request, filed by attorney Stephen D. Stamboulieh, is embedded below.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.