Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, launched an investigation Thursday morning into the Biden administration’s recently announced National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center.
“Extreme risk protection order” is lefty-speak for red flag law.
Breitbart News reported that Vice President Kamala Harris (D) announced the launch of the center on Saturday, along with $750 million in funds that will be given to it by the Biden administration.
Attorney General Merrick Garland praised the launch of the red flag center, saying:
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.
But on Thursday, Rep. Jordan issued a letter directed to Mrs. Cassandra Crifasi and Mr. Joshua Horwitz, co-founders of the John Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
The letter began:
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.”1 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 then used to the letter to highlight the myriad problems with red flag laws, including the threat such laws pose to 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.
Jordan then set forth five queries that he wants answers to no later than April 11, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.:
- Explanations of how they are ensuring that monies that have already been distributed to jurisdictions “are following the constitutional and due process safeguards [set forward in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act].”
- Explanation of how Crifasi and Horowitz’s office are “adhering to the provision of the law that requires ‘penalties for abuse of the program.’”
- “All documents and communications from June 25, 2022 to present between Executive Office of the President employees and Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions employees referring or relating to National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center.”
- “All documents and communications from June 25, 2022 to present between DOJ employees and Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions employees referring or relating to National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center.”
Jordan made clear that the documents Crifasi and Horowtiz hand over are also to include those related to the John Hopkins FY 2022 grant application for monies for an Extreme Risk Protective Order and Firearm Crisis Intervention Training and Technical Assistance Institute.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.