Jerry Knirk: Guns, risk protection

A bill that I am cosponsoring in the New Hampshire House exemplifies the public health approach to preventing gun violence. The bill would create a court order called an Extreme Risk Protection Order, which would temporarily limit a person’s access to firearms if they are exhibiting warning signs that they pose a serious risk of harming themselves or others. When a person is in crisis, it is often law enforcement or loved ones who are the first ones to notice signs that they pose a threat.

There are already ways for the court to restrict a person’s access to firearms under statutes dealing with domestic violence and stalking, but they require that the person has already committed a crime. Under the involuntary commitment statute, a person also loses his or her access to guns but that is a process of confining the person in a mental health-care facility, and there is a very high bar for such an action to take place.