Red Flag Laws by State

What Is a Red Flag Law

The phrase “red flag law” makes it sound like surveillance. It is closer to a restraining order for guns. A person who is spiraling, making threats, or in a suicidal crisis can have their firearms held for a set time, then returned when the danger passes.

How an ERPO Works

An ERPO is a civil court process, modeled on the domestic-violence restraining order. It moves in two stages that balance public safety against due process. A fast temporary order handles the immediate danger; a full hearing follows, where the petitioner has to prove the case.

The life of an ERPO, from petition to return

1. 1 Day 1 A petition is filed A family member or officer files a sworn affidavit describing specific warning signs.
2. 2 Same day A judge reviews it Without the gun owner present (ex parte), so the person is not tipped off. The judge looks for immediate risk.
3. 3 Within hours Guns are removed Police serve the temporary order and take the firearms. New purchases are blocked.
4. 4 3 to 21 days A full hearing Both sides appear. The respondent can bring a lawyer, cross-examine, and present evidence.
5. 5 Up to 1 year A final order, or not In most states the petitioner must show clear and convincing evidence. The respondent can usually ask the court to end it early.
6. 6 When it expires Guns are returned If no one renews the court order, most laws guarantee the firearms go back.

Timeframes and standards of proof vary by state. Sources: National ERPO Resource Center; Giffords Law Center; The Trace.

Who Can Ask for a Red Flag Order

Whether a worried mother can go to a judge herself depends entirely on her state. Every ERPO state lets law enforcement petition. Beyond that, the states split three ways.

The difference matters because family and household members may see warning signs before police do. A Secret Service study of 41 attacks at K-12 schools from 2008 to 2017 found that 77% of the attackers had threatened their targets or shared their intent to attack (National Threat Assessment Center, 2019). In police-only states, a worried relative has to persuade an officer to file.

The broadest extreme risk laws reflect that. California’s Gun Violence Restraining Order accepts petitions from employers, coworkers, and teachers. New York adds district attorneys and school administrators. Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, and Michigan let medical professionals or mental health professionals file directly about a patient they believe is dangerous. Nine states let police plus family or household members file, and four let only law enforcement file.

The newest expansion is Virginia. On July 1, 2026, family members, clinicians, and school administrators became eligible to petition for a Substantial Risk Order; before that, only police and prosecutors could (Virginia HB901).

Red Flag Orders Are Not Mental-Health Holds

The most common confusion is between a red flag order and an involuntary psychiatric hold, like California’s 5150 or Florida’s Baker Act. They are different tools.

The distinction matters because an ERPO targets the specific risk, the access to a firearm, without hospitalizing anyone or requiring a psychiatric diagnosis.

What States Have Red Flag Laws

Red flag laws are split sharply along the same lines as the rest of gun policy. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have one, and so does the U.S. Virgin Islands. Lawmakers in six states have gone the other way, passing laws that forbid or even criminalize enforcing an ERPO. Most states also bar cities from passing their own gun laws, a kind of state preemption our preemption explainer maps state by state.

Red Flag Laws by State

• Has a red flag law (22 states + DC)
• Bans or penalizes enforcing one (6 states)
• No statewide red flag law

Sources: National ERPO Resource Center; Everytown for Gun Safety; Giffords Law Center; The Trace. Verified October 8, 2026.

Red Flag Laws by State

State	Status	Detail
California	Has a red flag law	Gun Violence Restraining Order (2016). One of the broadest petitioner lists in the country.
Colorado	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2019). Expanded in 2023 to let clinicians and educators petition.
Connecticut	Has a red flag law	Risk Protection Order (1999), the nation's first. Since a 2021 law, family members and clinicians can apply to a court, which orders a police investigation that can lead to an order.
Delaware	Has a red flag law	Lethal Violence Protective Order (2018). Final orders can last up to 5 years since August 2025.
District of Columbia	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2019).
Florida	Has a red flag law	Risk Protection Order (2018), passed after Parkland. One of the highest-use states despite police-only filing.
Hawaii	Has a red flag law	Gun Violence Protective Order (2020).
Illinois	Has a red flag law	Firearms Restraining Order (2019), extended from 6 months to up to 1 year.
Indiana	Has a red flag law	Risk Warrant (2005), an early red flag law named for a killed officer.
Maine	Has a red flag law	ERPO approved by voters in Nov. 2025, effective Feb. 2026. Maine also keeps its older "yellow flag" law.
Maryland	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2018); among the highest usage rates.
Massachusetts	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2018). Expanded in 2024 to let clinicians and school administrators petition.
Michigan	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2024).
Minnesota	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2024).
Nevada	Has a red flag law	High-Risk Behavior order (2020).
New Jersey	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2019). Final orders last until a court terminates them.
New Mexico	Has a red flag law	Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order (2020). Family members report to police, who file.
New York	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2019), the first law to let school administrators petition.
Oregon	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2018).
Rhode Island	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2018).
Vermont	Has a red flag law	ERPO (2018). Family members can petition directly since 2023.
Virginia	Has a red flag law	Substantial Risk Order (2020). Petitioners expanded to family, clinicians, and school administrators on July 1, 2026.
Washington	Has a red flag law	ERPO passed by ballot initiative (2016).
Oklahoma	Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement	Bars cities and counties from adopting red flag orders or taking funding to carry them out (2020), the first such ban.
West Virginia	Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement	Bars state police from enforcing, and courts from issuing, red flag orders (2021).
Tennessee	Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement	Bars cities and counties from adopting their own red flag rules (2024).
Wyoming	Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement	Prohibits red flag gun seizures (2024). Since July 2026, a knowing violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year of imprisonment, a $2,000 fine, or both.
Texas	Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement	Makes serving or enforcing an ERPO a felony (2025), the harshest ban.
Montana	Bans or penalizes ERPO enforcement	Bars enforcing red flag orders, including other states' (2025). The state can fine local governments up to $10,000 per violation.
Alabama	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Alaska	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Arizona	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Arkansas	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Georgia	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Idaho	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Iowa	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Kansas	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Kentucky	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Louisiana	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Mississippi	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Missouri	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Nebraska	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
New Hampshire	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
North Carolina	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
North Dakota	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Ohio	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Pennsylvania	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
South Carolina	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
South Dakota	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Utah	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.
Wisconsin	No statewide red flag law	No statewide red flag / ERPO law.

Connecticut passed the first one in 1999. The wave came after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and most current laws date from then. Two states got theirs by ballot measure: Washington voters in 2016, and Maine voters in November 2025. Maine’s law took effect on February 21, 2026, and the state kept its older “yellow flag” law alongside it (National ERPO Resource Center). On the other side, a 2025 Texas law made enforcing an ERPO a felony punishable by up to two years in prison (The Trace).

Not all of these laws are equal. Everytown for Gun Safety’s state rankings list who can petition in each state, and the gap between the broadest (California) and the narrowest (police-only states) is wide.

The map shows the split. The table gets specific. Search for your state to see what the court order is called, who can ask for one, and how long a final order lasts.

Do Red Flag Laws Work?

The research is strongest on suicide, where several studies find fewer gun suicides after states pass or use these laws. It is thinner on mass shootings, and even the suicide findings come with limits worth knowing.

A firearm suicide attempt is fatal in about 90% of cases, while for drug overdoses the rate is under 5% (Harvard Means Matter). That gap is how the laws are meant to save lives: remove the gun during the crisis, and an attempt is far less likely to kill.

The first two state studies (Kivisto and Phalen, Psychiatric Services, 2018) found mixed results. Indiana’s firearm suicides fell 7.5% and its overall suicide rate fell too. Connecticut’s firearm suicides fell 13.7% once enforcement picked up after 2007, but suicides by other means rose enough to offset that drop.

The newer studies are larger. In January 2026, a study in JAMA Health Forum compared four states that passed laws with eight that did not. One year after passage, it found 3.79 fewer firearm suicides per 100,000 people, about 675 suicides in all, and no increase in suicides by other means.

Order estimated to prevent a suicide Orders issued

The grid shows the low end of the range, 17 orders. States studied: California, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington. Source: Swanson and colleagues, Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2024.

Not every study finds a clear effect. Researchers who followed California handgun owners (JAMA Network Open, September 2026) estimated a modest drop in suicides, but they wrote that “a null effect cannot be ruled out.” They added that a small effect across a whole state does not mean the orders fail for the people who receive them. RAND, which reviews gun research for a nonpartisan audience, rated the suicide evidence as limited in January 2026.

The evidence on mass shootings is weaker still. Wintemute and colleagues (Annals of Internal Medicine, 2019) described 21 California cases where someone threatened a mass shooting and a court issued an order. As of August 2019, none of the threatened shootings had happened, but the authors stated plainly that they made no claim the orders caused that result. RAND rates the evidence on mass shootings and violent crime as inconclusive.

The Equity Problem in Red Flag Orders

The sharpest critique of red flag laws is about who ends up on the wrong end of them.

A UC Davis study of California orders (Pear and colleagues, Preventive Medicine, 2022) found that no family or household members served as petitioners for Black or Hispanic respondents. Black respondents were also the least likely to have documented access to a gun, and the least likely to have a lawyer in court.

There is a second, quieter problem: many people who could use the laws do not know how. In a 2023 survey of more than 10,000 people in states with the laws reported by The Trace, 65% had heard of the orders, but only 7% felt very familiar with them. Among 3,021 Washington clinicians surveyed in 2021, 75.2% said they were not familiar with ERPOs (Preventive Medicine Reports). A law no one knows how to use protects no one.

Red Flag Laws and the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has never ruled on a red flag law. Its recent Second Amendment cases set the test one would face.

1. 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller The Court establishes an individual right to keep a handgun at home (5-4).
2. 2022 NY State Rifle & Pistol v. Bruen A new "history and tradition" test: gun laws must match a historical analogue (6-3).
3. 2024 United States v. Rahimi The Court upholds disarming people under a domestic-violence restraining order (8-1), the closest ruling to ERPOs.

Sources: Supreme Court; SCOTUSblog.

The Second Amendment cases behind red flag laws: 2008: District of Columbia v. Heller (The Court establishes an individual right to keep a handgun at home (5-4).). 2022: NY State Rifle & Pistol v. Bruen (A new "history and tradition" test: gun laws must match a historical analogue (6-3).). 2024: United States v. Rahimi (The Court upholds disarming people under a domestic-violence restraining order (8-1), the closest ruling to ERPOs.).

After Bruen, every Second Amendment case turned on finding a historical analogue. In United States v. Rahimi (2024, 8-1), Chief Justice Roberts clarified that a modern law needs a historical principle, not an identical twin. Our 2nd Amendment explainer walks through the test courts now apply. Pointing to founding-era surety and “going armed” laws, the Court held that “when an individual poses a clear threat of physical violence to another, the threatening individual may be disarmed.” Supporters of extreme risk laws rely on that reasoning, though Rahimi addressed threats to others, not a risk of suicide. The same historical test is now at the center of the Supreme Court’s case on assault weapons bans, set for argument on December 2, 2026.

Red Flag Laws in 2026

The laws keep moving in both directions. Maine and Virginia widened access this year, while more states considered bans, and a federal bill sits in committee.

Where Red Flag Laws Stand

As of October 8, 2026

• State red flag laws (22 states, D.C., U.S. Virgin Islands) Law

  Maine's voter-passed law took effect February 21, 2026. (source)

• Virginia's wider list of petitioners Law

  Family members, clinicians and school administrators could petition starting July 1, 2026. (source)

• State bans on enforcing orders (6 states) Law

  Texas made enforcing an order a felony in 2025, with up to two years in prison. (source)

• New bans in Iowa, Missouri and South Carolina Proposal

  Lawmakers in all three states considered bans in 2026, The Trace reported in April. (source)

• Disarming people a court finds dangerous Final ruling, upheld

  United States v. Rahimi upheld the federal domestic-violence gun ban 8-1 on June 21, 2024.

• Federal ERPO Act (H.R. 7599) Proposal

  Introduced February 17, 2026, with 113 cosponsors. It has sat in the Judiciary Committee since. (source)

Source: National ERPO Resource Center; The Trace; Virginia Legislative Information System; Supreme Court; govinfo bill status

Common Myths About Red Flag Laws

Several myths drive the opposition, and clearing them is the honest case for the laws.

They are not gun confiscation. The order is temporary, the guns are returned, and there is no registry of gun owners. While an order is active, the person fails a firearm background check, which is what blocks new purchases; when it expires, that block lifts. A background check does not reach a gun someone builds at home, one reason some states also regulate ghost guns.

They are not based on a diagnosis. The test is dangerous behavior, not mental illness.

They are not a tool for spurned exes and angry neighbors. A judge must hold a hearing before a final order, most states require clear and convincing evidence, and many make knowingly filing a false petition a crime.

They are not, by themselves, enough, supporters say. Too many police officers and families do not know their state has one, Everytown’s senior director of research told Stateline in 2025.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the police take my guns without warning me?

Only temporarily. In most states with a red flag law, a judge can issue an emergency order on a petition sworn under penalty of perjury before you are notified. A full hearing follows, usually within days to three weeks, where both sides present evidence, you can bring a lawyer at your own expense, and the judge decides whether the burden of proof has been met.

Do I have to be mentally ill for an ERPO?

No. A red flag order rests on a court’s finding that a person is at high risk of firearm violence, whether or not they have committed a crime or been diagnosed with a mental disorder.

How long does a red flag order last?

A temporary order lasts until the hearing, from one or two days in Maryland to up to 21 days in Oregon. Most final orders last one year. When an order expires without renewal, the firearms are returned unless the person is barred from guns for another reason. The red flag state-by-state table lists each state’s order length.

How do I get my guns back after an ERPO?

Wait out the order or ask the court to end it early, which most states allow. When the order expires without renewal, most laws guarantee the firearms’ return and the background-check block lifts. The steps to pick them up differ by state.

Does Texas have a red flag law?

No, and it passed the opposite. In 2025, Texas made enforcing an ERPO a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. A Texan worried about someone in crisis can still call 988 or ask police about emergency mental-health options, but no gun-removal order exists there.

Are red flag laws constitutional?

The Supreme Court has not ruled on a red flag law. In United States v. Rahimi (2024), it ruled 8-1 that the government may temporarily disarm someone a court has found to be a credible threat to another person’s safety, the reasoning supporters of red flag laws rely on.

Can a red flag order protect a gun owner in crisis?

Yes, and that use is growing. Stateline reported in 2025 that petitions in states with the laws rose 59% from 2022 to 2023, by Everytown’s count, and quoted a retired detective who trains police, who said the removal is temporary and gives the person “time and space away from the most lethal means to get the help they need.”

Which states do not have red flag laws?

28 states have none. 6 of them, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming, go further and bar enforcing red flag orders. The other 22 are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin. The red flag state table shows each one.

Does North Carolina have a red flag law?

No. North Carolina has no extreme risk law. A judge there can still order someone to surrender firearms in a domestic violence protective order case, when the person has threatened to kill or seriously injure the victim or has threatened suicide (N.C. Gen. Stat. 50B-3.1). Anyone worried about a person in crisis can call or text 988.

What You Can Do

1. Back a federal framework. The Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (H.R. 7599) would create a federal ERPO process and fund state red flag programs. Ask your U.S. House member and senators to co-sponsor it. Use the letter below.
2. Push for funding and training, not just a law. Supporters say underuse is the biggest gap. Tell your state lawmakers and local police to fund officer training and public-awareness campaigns, and to send clinicians or social workers to serve orders. Find them at openstates.org.
3. Know your state’s red flag law. If someone you love is in danger, you may be able to petition, or ask police to. The National ERPO Resource Center explains each state’s process, and the table above shows who can file where you live.
4. If someone is in crisis, act now. Call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If your state has a red flag law, ask law enforcement about an emergency order.