DENVER — A new, online tool is designed to assist health care and mental health care professionals with any questions they may have about utilizing Colorado's red flag law.
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention launched the new curriculum at the end of June. The goal is to explain how to petition a court for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), and to raise awareness around who can do so.
An ERPO is certain kind of civil restraining order which is issued by a court and temporarily prevents a person from purchasing or possessing firearms. The individual would also have to surrender a concealed carry permit, if applicable. The orders are meant to be filed when an eligible party believes that someone poses a significant risk to themselves or others and possesses a gun.
If a court grants an ERPO, then the individual in question must surrender their guns for 14 days, and cannot purchase more. Sometimes, those orders are extended for up to 364 days.
- Denver7's Colette Bordelon spoke to an expert and a mass shooting survivor who hope the state's new curriculum is a solution that will prevent future gun violence. Watch her report in the video player below:
Governor Jared Polis signed Colorado's red flag law in April of 2019. At the time, those who could petition for an ERPO included family or household members, along with law enforcement officers and agencies.
In 2023, the law was expanded to include educators, district attorneys, health care professionals, and mental health care providers.
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention was created when Polis signed House Bill 21-1299 into law in 2021. It falls within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
"The new curriculum is something that's designed to help health professionals and mental health professionals understand and navigate the way to obtain an Extreme Risk Protection Order," said Dr. Ned Calonge, the chief medical officer of CDPHE. "We have good evidence that many people who are thinking about harming themselves or contemplating suicide actually access a mental health or a medical care provider before doing anything."
Calonge said the online curriculum is currently geared toward mental health and health care professionals, but said the components of the educational guide can be applied to other groups who can petition for an ERPO, too.
"The idea is to try to make folks aware that the curriculum exists," said Calonge. "Not every care provider knows this [ERPO] is a tool available to them... Now that I know it's there, how do I do it? So, it's a complex process."
Calonge stressed that ERPOs are not permanent and must be proven to the satisfaction of a court before being enforced.
"I'm hoping Coloradans will not be surprised if their clinicians start saying, 'Do you have guns in your home?' It's not an issue of, 'I want to take your guns away.' It's an issue of, 'I want to provide you with information that can best protect you and your family,'" Calonge explained. "Recognize that this is becoming a part of health care, primary health care, to assess all potential risks to individuals, and that's all it is."
The law is controversial in Colorado. According to CDPHE, more than half of Colorado counties "declared some form of 2nd Amendment Sanctuary status stating they would not enforce this law" when it was first passed.
The El Paso County Commissioners were among the group that resisted the law.
In an online statement Denver7 has previously reported on, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said they will not seek a risk protection order unless "exigent circumstances exist."
During a 2019 interview with Denver7's sister station in Colorado Springs, KOAA, former El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said, “We’re not going to pursue these [risk protection orders] on our own, meaning the sheriff’s office isn’t going to run over and get a court order.”
In November of 2024, Denver7 reported on lawsuits from victim families and survivors of the Club Q mass shooting which alleged the tragedy could have been prevented if the sheriff's office utilized Colorado's red flag law, along with greater protections from Club Q.
Five people were killed in the Club Q mass shooting in November of 2022, and more than a dozen other people were injured at the LGBTQ+ club that night. The shooter is serving life in prison.
Court records show the two lawsuits have since been consolidated into one.
One of the people who survived the shooting is Ashtin Gamblin, who was shot nine times while working the door at the club.
"Now that we're inching closer to that kind of three year mark, it definitely doesn't feel like it's been three years," Gamblin said. "I don't know that this will ever end for me."
Gamblin is among the survivors and victim families who feel the mass shooting could have been prevented.
"I feel like we were failed at every turn," she said. "How many mass shootings do we go through where other individuals were like, 'Oh yeah, they were a loner. They were this. They were that.'"
In 2021, El Paso County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a report of a bomb threat in the Lorson Ranch neighborhood. The incident was related to the person who would become the Club Q shooter.
In the arrest affidavit from that case, the shooter's grandmother told dispatch they would become the "next mass killer" and that they were collecting ammo, firearms, and body armor.
The sheriff's office previously told Denver7 that all firearms that belonged to the gunman were seized and a mandatory protection order was issued against the future shooter. Part of that order means they could not possess any firearms, which is why the sheriff's office said they didn't petition for an extreme risk protection order before the charges were dismissed.
The shooter was later released on bond, and the case was dismissed after the defendant's mother and grandparents refused to cooperate, and prosecutors failed to serve subpoenas to family members that could have kept the case alive. It was dismissed just months before the mass shooting at Club Q.
Gamblin hopes the emphasis on ERPO education throughout Colorado can save lives in the future.
"I really do hope that it is preventable for somebody else and they don't have to go through what we went through. But for Club Q, it's absolutely too late," Gamblin said.
The survivor of gun violence said her stance is not connected to gun control.
"Where's a middle ground without going to the extreme? Where everybody can be happy, but people can also be safe. I think ERPOs are a step in that direction, but I still think there's a little bit more that can happen," Gamblin said.
The most recent data from the state shows that between 2020 and 2023, 522 ERPOs were filed.
351 of those filings resulted in Temporary ERPOs being granted, which last up to two weeks. 275 Final ERPOs were granted, stretching for up to 364 days.
The two figures do not add up to 522 since a temporary ERPO can turn into a full ERPO.
"They've been going up every year. So, we've seen a steady increase from when we started in 2020 to 2023," said Calonge.
Filings to terminate the ERPO early can be submitted by the individual impacted, while petitioners can work to extend the orders when they approach their expiration date.
The Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Ian Escalante, believes the new educational push will absolutely increase the number of ERPOs seen in Colorado.
"To suggest otherwise is either laughable or purposely misleading. The fact of the matter is that they are encouraging individuals to use and abuse the red flag gun confiscation orders that they passed back in 2019 and expanded into 2023," Escalante said. "They believe that it is a great thing. They believe it should be used as often as possible."
Escalante believes the orders infringe on Second Amendment rights.
"The fear is that it flies in the face of our system," Escalante said. "We were founded on the idea of innocent until proven guilty... The proponents want to play mental gymnastics, but the at the end of the day, they either don't understand the Constitution or they don't care, and that's why we have such a strong opposition to this. It has nothing to do with with keeping people safe. This is just a blatant violation of rights, and we believe in American principles of innocent until proven guilty, and this, quite frankly, spits in the face of it."
Escalante said the circumstances change if an individual has been convicted of a violent crime.
Colorado has an ERPO hotline that can provide resources to those who would like to learn more about the process of filing such an order.
