Chuck Darwin<p>Kamala Harris announces new office to implement ‘red flag’ laws </p><p>The White House has announced a new national office to support states implementing “<a href="https://c.im/tags/red" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>red</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/flag" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>flag</span></a>” laws to combat <a href="https://c.im/tags/gun" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>gun</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/violence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>violence</span></a>, an initiative funded by the justice department.</p><p>Kamala Harris made the announcement on Saturday during a visit to <a href="https://c.im/tags/Parkland" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Parkland</span></a>, Florida, where she toured the site of the nation’s worst high school shooting, the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre that killed 17.</p><p>The vice-president met with victims’ families <br>– many of whom have been active in gun control advocacy since the shooting <br>– and visited the building where 14 students and three staff members were slain.</p><p>The launch of the federal 🔹Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center 🔹( <a href="https://c.im/tags/Erpo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Erpo</span></a> ) follows Joe Biden’s establishment of the White House 🔸Office of Gun Violence Prevention 🔸in September, which the president tapped Harris to lead.</p><p>Operated through the ⭐️Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions⭐️, and paid for by a justice department grant, Erpo is designed to help state and local governments, law enforcement, and others <br>– including behavioral health and social service providers <br>– “optimize” the use of red flag laws, Harris said.</p><p>It will provide training and technical assistance, including educational opportunities and workshops “for a wide variety of stakeholders”. <br>But the vice-president also acknowledged that red flag laws, which facilitate the temporary removal of firearms from a person a court believes capable of harming themselves or others, are not universally popular.</p><p>👉Only 21 states have implemented red flag laws, and the White House said that only six of those states had taken advantage of $750m in funding that the Biden administration made available through the 2022 ♦️Bipartisan Safer Communities Act ♦️(BSCA) for crisis-intervention initiatives such as red flag programs and mental health, drug and veteran treatment courts.</p><p>Harris called on the other 29 states to enact red flag laws and urged those that already have them to tap into the BSCA funds to support them.<br> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/23/kamala-harris-red-flag-gun-control-laws?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/us-news/2024/m</span><span class="invisible">ar/23/kamala-harris-red-flag-gun-control-laws?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</span></a></p>