Top Colorado Counties for Approving or Rejecting Gun Protection Orders

This is the third in a series about extreme risk protection orders two years after they were legalized in Colorado. Click to read part one, "Gun Protection Orders Requested in Most Colorado Counties That Rejected Them," and part two, "How Many Colorado Gun Protection Orders Were Actually Granted."

On January 1, 2020, Colorado legalized extreme risk protection orders, which create a mechanism to restrict access to firearms for individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others. The so-called "red flag law" has now been on the books for just over two years, and statistics from the Colorado Judicial Branch show that 89 of 255 ERPO requests were granted through the end of 2021. But counties proved much more apt to approve temporary protection orders, which last two weeks, than full ERPOs that don't expire for a year.

Eileen McCarron, who serves as president of the legislative action arm of the advocacy organization Colorado Ceasefire, and Lisa Geller, state affairs manager for the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, based in Washington, D.C., are generally upbeat about the introduction of ERPOs in Colorado. But McCarron acknowledges that there have been wide discrepancies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

El Paso County is one of 38 "sanctuary counties," where sheriffs or other local law enforcement agencies pledged not to enforce the law allowing extreme risk protection orders. Even so, ERPO petitions were filed in twenty of those 38 counties in 2020-2021, including El Paso County. However, El Paso's denial rate was higher than anywhere else in Colorado: Eighteen petitions for temporary protection orders were turned down and just seven approved.

Here are the number of petitions that were either granted or denied in the 37 Colorado counties where they were filed in calendar years 2020 and 2021:
The 64 denials out of 129 petitions for temporary orders filed statewide in the past two years represents very close to a .500 batting average. But the level of success for petitions requesting a full-year ERPO was lower; of 34 that were filed, only fourteen won approval.

Once again, El Paso County stands out: All thirteen petitions in this category were rebuffed. But Denver, which okayed far more temporary ERPOs than any other county, rejected all ten requests for full-year applications, too.

Continue for the details:
To date, thirteen motions to renew extreme risk protection orders have been filed in Colorado, and twelve of those were granted. The only exception was in Jefferson County.

Like McCarron, Geller hopes that the number of ERPO petitions filed and granted in Colorado will continue on the upward trend seen in the program's first two years. "Easy access to guns significantly increases the risk of both firearm suicide and homicide," she says. "If ERPOs are equitably and efficiently implemented, they can stop many forms of gun violence in its tracks, particularly gun suicides and mass shootings, and prevent harm to the owner of the firearm and others."

Adds McCarron: "Apparently, the family of the Boulder King Soopers shooter was not aware of the ERPO law. He was an example of one type of dangerous person for whom the law was written. Like the Highlands Ranch murderer of Zackari Parrish, a family member had temporarily removed the firearm but then returned it. If an ERPO petition had been filed and granted, ten lives could have been saved, and a community would never have been put through such excruciating pain."

Click to read two studies about extreme risk protection orders: "The Color of Risk Protection Orders: Gun Violence, Gun Laws, and Racial Justice" and "Colorado's First Year of Extreme Risk Protection Orders."