Colorado ERPO Petitions Involve Service Members at Rates Slightly Above Population Share

{"Researchers at CU Anschutz reviewed court records for every extreme risk protection order petition submitted statewide over four years. They extracted demographics, documented firearm access, petition reasons, and final court dispositions. Service member and veteran cases were compared directly with civilian filings on the same metrics, with additional narrative coding for recurring themes such as PTSD, substance use, and threats of mass violence.","Firearm access appeared in 56 of the 68 military-affiliated petitions. Temporary orders were granted in 47 cases (69.1%), and 36 of those (76.6%) were extended to full 365-day orders. Five petitions filed by military supervisors were denied for lack of legal standing, even though commanders had already restricted on-duty firearm access. Suicide threats appeared in more than half the cases, with similar proportions of self-directed versus other-directed threats between military and civilian groups.","The study highlights gaps in referral pathways when supervisors identify acute risk but lack petition authority under state law. It also documents use of veteran crisis lines and virtual support groups as entry points for ERPO filings. Because the analysis is limited to one state and relies on petition narratives rather than verified clinical diagnoses, it cannot determine whether ERPOs reduced suicides or violence.","Next steps include multi-state linkage of ERPO records with VA and DoD health data to assess downstream outcomes and targeted education for military leadership on available legal options. Such studies would need prospective designs with matched controls to test whether temporary firearm removal alters suicide rates in this population."}