MONROE COUNTY, N.Y. – Carol got a disturbing video from her sister in April.
“Well she sent me a video of herself holding a gun to her head telling me she was going to kill herself and it was all my fault,” Carol said.
We changed Carol’s name and voice to try to protect her sister.
“I took it as a very very serious threat,” Carol said. “And so that’s when I made the call.”
Carol’s 911 call came to a Monroe County Sheriff’s deputy on the west side who went to the sister’s home. Court filings show the deputy arranged for her to go to the hospital. Then he found and took the gun, a 9mm Smith and Wesson. Two days later the deputy filed a Temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order. A week later the court approved it for a year.
The order, known as an ERPO, lets the police keep the gun and bans the person from getting a gun.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “These ERPOs, extreme risk protection orders, do they save lives?”
Lisa Geller, Johns Hopkins’ Center for Gun Violence Solutions: “They do.”
Lisa Geller works for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. They just studied the impact of ERPOs on suicides in four states.
Lisa Geller: “And what they found was that for every approximately 17 ERPOs issued, one suicide was prevented.”
Suicides make up the majority of gun deaths in America.
Of the four ERPOs I found filed in Monroe County this year, all were done by the sheriff’s office and all involved people who were distraught and threatening to kill themselves.
Click here to see the New York State ERPO dashboard
Since 2019, 232 temporary and/or final ERPOs were issued in Monroe County. It’s nearly 29,000 in the state. Using the Johns Hopkins study math of one suicide prevented for every 17 orders, that equals 13 lives saved in Monroe County and roughly 1,600 in New York State.
Berkeley Brean: “Do you think that for at least the time being that has saved your sister’s life?”
Carol: “Absolutely. I do. I actually, after I spoke to you yesterday I called my mother and I explained to her about the order and we both actually feel very very secure and have comfort knowing that with that in place she can no longer hurt herself or potentially anybody else or myself or my mother.”
The state’s ERPO dashboard shows the filing go up like a hockey stick. The sharp trend upward started shortly after the Tops mass murder in Buffalo in 2022. After that, the state passed a law encouraging police to file ERPOs and expanded the list of people who can do it including doctors, teachers, neighbors, co-workers and relatives.Geller says the trend across the country shows states enact ERPO laws after a mass shooting. Florida did it after the Parkland school shooting in 2018 which killed 17 people.
Berkeley Brean: “How do (ERPOs) jive with the 2nd amendment? How does it get around that?”
Lisa Geller: “These are civil orders that are modeled off of domestic violence protection orders. These are not intended to be permanent orders. They’re time limited and once the order is up for expiration if there is no cause to extend or renew the order, that individual is able to get their firearms back.”
I spoke to the president of S.C.O.P.E. whose website says its mission is to “Protect, Restore and Expand the gun rights of all New Yorkers.” John Elwood said they stand for responsible gun ownership and firearm activities but said the ERPO law “doesn’t provide enough due process.”
According to the ERPO filing in the case in this story, the gun seized by the sheriff’s deputy was not legally owned.
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News10NBC Investigates: ‘I took it as a very serious threat’: Woman’s call to police results in Extreme Risk Protection Order for sister WHEC.com.
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