Schools work hard to ensure that they are safe spaces for students to learn and grow. Teachers, administrators, school health professionals, and School Resource Officers (SROs) can see when students are in distress or even at-risk of harming themselves or others. 

Healthcare providers are uniquely poised to offer someone at-risk of harming themselves or others an opportunity for harm reduction and prevention. Extreme Risk Protection Orders are a vital tool healthcare providers can use in responding to critical patient needs.

Law enforcement play the biggest role in the implementation and use of Extreme Risk Protection Order laws. In every state with an ERPO law, law enforcement officials can file petitions and are often the most common petitioners in each state. Law enforcement are also responsible for the service of the order and the subsequent firearm dispossession. 

Domestic Violence Advocates should consider ERPOs as a potential tool when working with victims of domestic violence or intimate partner violence. Although ERPOs only restrict access to firearms and do not provide other forms of personal protection, they can be useful to include in safety planning–especially if firearm dispossession is not available through other protection orders.