About the Research

FINDINGS IN BRIEF

• Most respondents (67.4%) reported having never heard of extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs). Further, almost one-third (28.9%) of respondents said they were not at all willing to use an ERPO in one or more risk-based scenarios.
• However, after reading a brief policy description, majorities of the population endorsed ERPOs as appropriate and said they would be willing to serve as petitioners for family members of concern. 
• Barriers to use included knowledge gaps, particularly among non-firearm owners and Black, Latine, and Asian respondents; not trusting the system to be fair; and the perception that the scenarios of concern involved personal or family matters.
•  More than one-third of respondents said the police were not a preferred means through which to initiate an order and a similar proportion favored holding onto a family member’s guns themselves instead of using an ERPO. 

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Public awareness of California’s nearly decade-old ERPO law remains low and effectively unchanged since it was last assessed. Optimizing the lifesaving impacts of ERPOs will require addressing these layered concerns through coordinated and sustained investments in broader ecosystems of community safety while still facilitating firearm recovery where appropriate. Research involving significant and sustained community and careholder engagement, including people with elevated risk for and direct experience of violence and injury must be prioritized to ensure that ERPO implementation strategies are designed and delivered to truly address community needs.

METHODS

We examined public awareness of and support for California’s ERPO law, barriers to its use, and possible alternative approaches. Using a general population sample of adults from the California Safety and Wellbeing Survey (N = 3531), with both closed-ended and open-ended questions, we provide updated prevalence estimates and narrative insights about the policy, with subgroup analyses by firearm ownership status and categories of race and ethnicity. 

Citation

Kravitz-Wirtz N, Dent A, Buggs S, Aubel AJ, Lund J, Wintemute G, Pear VA. “Has this been tested? Who has it helped? Who has it hurt?”: Public perceptions about California’s extreme risk protection order law. Plos one. 2025 Nov 4;20(11):e0334967.

Learn More

• Read the paper in PLOS One