By Emma Epperly / WNPA Olympia News Bureau
OLYMPIA — The state Senate has voted to extend Extreme Risk Protection Orders to minors.
Senate Bill 5027 was approved by the Senate on a bipartisan 43-5 vote Tuesday. Extreme Risk Protection Orders — also known as ERPOs — are civil court orders that prevent individuals at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms and concealed pistol licenses, temporarily.
Washington voters in 2016 overwhelmingly endorsed an initiative that made it legal for police and family members to seek extreme-risk protection orders that block access to firearms for up to a year based on a person’s demonstrated risk of suicide, mental illness or potential for violence.
SB 5027 extends ERPOs to children and requires their parents or guardians to be notified. They, in turn, would be required to safely store any firearms in their home upon notification.
After an extreme risk protection order is filed, a court hearing is set within the next 14 days. The court can then extend the ERPO for one year.
Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, was a part of the work group that looked at issues related to mass shootings. This bill addresses a unanimous recommendation from the group.
“We all know that in 2018 we saw a spate of school shootings and we are raising, unfortunately, a generation of children who are the lockdown generation, who are used to active shooter drills,” Frockt said.
Sen. Steve O’Ban, a Republican from Pierce County, said addressing the safety of minors “is an important hole to fill, which this bill does.”
“So much of the discussion — the debate — when we have to address these mass shootings, has been devolved quickly into the whole Second Amendment gun-rights discussion …. [W]e we end up often without, I think, real solutions to try to address this growing problem of violence in our communities,” he said.
Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, also voiced his support, saying that if it was necessary for an ERPO to be levied against his child, he would want to be notified.
The bill will now move to the House of Representatives.
The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s Olympia news bureau consists of student journalists and recent graduates.
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