One State’s Plan to Make Violent White Supremacy Grounds for Gun Removal

In early April, a Seattle woman brought her boyfriend to the Northwest Hospital emergency room for a mental health check. She told the doctors that he owned three guns, had been fantasizing about mass shootings, and wanted to be a “hero” for the white race, according to a court document. While he hadn’t yet committed a crime and didn’t meet the criteria for involuntary psychiatric commitment, doctors, counselors, and police agreed he shouldn’t have access to firearms.

The police applied for an extreme risk protection order, which a judge later granted. Washington is one of 15 states with an ERPO or “red-flag” law on the books. Such laws provide police, family members, mental health professionals, and educators with a way to disarm gun owners who are deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Now, the state wants to use ERPOs for more gun owners who, like the man who went to Northwest Hospital in early April, threaten to commit hate-fueled violence. Among a slew of gun violence prevention bills signed by Governor Jay Inslee in early May was an amendment to the current ERPO law that specifies that judges should consider whether a troubled gun owner has been convicted of “malicious harassment,” a category that includes behaviors like burning crosses and defacing property with swastikas. It’s the first hate-specific ERPO law in the country.