Under federal and many state laws, persons under domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs) are prohibited from possession of firearms. Using multiple sources and a Lexis Nexis search, we developed a list of state laws pertaining to the relinquishment or removal of firearms from persons prohibited from possession by DVROs. After downloading the text of each law, we conducted a legal analysis to enumerate provisions of the laws specifying implementation. We found 49 laws in 29 states and Washington, DC. The laws were conceptualized as instructions to the court, the respondent, and law enforcement. We detail the content of each state's law, including such elements as whether it applies to ex parte DVROs; whether certain criteria must be met, such as previous use of a firearm in domestic violence or lack of an employment exemption, before the law can be applied; and whether the application of the law is mandatory. We also detail instructions to the respondent regarding to whom firearms may be relinquished, whether the respondent must seek permission to transfer the firearm to a third party, and the time by which dispossession must occur. Finally, whether law enforcement bears the responsibility for removing the firearm or whether the law gives the court the authority to order a search and seizure for the firearms is discussed. The purpose of the research is to provide an overview of these state laws that can be used by key stakeholders in legislative, judicial, advocacy, or research roles. Implications are discussed.

In COVID’s immediate wake, the 2020 death toll from a different enemy of the public’s health — gun violence — ticked up by 15 percent in the United States from the previous year. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in Caniglia v. Strom that will allow people who have recently threatened suicide — with a gun — to keep unsecured guns in their home unless police take time to obtain a search warrant to remove them.

Background. Gun violence is a public health crisis in the United States. Extreme risk protection orders, called substantial risk orders in Virginia, are a prevention tool that temporarily remove firearms from individuals at risk of harm to self or others. To date, no peer-reviewed papers have explored the use of substantial risk orders in Virginia. Methods. We reviewed risk order data from Virginia from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2022. The risk order data included in this study was obtained from the Virginia State Police Criminal Justice Information Services Division. We calculated descriptive statistics for the number and type of risk order (in total and by locality), demographic variables (sex, race, and age), and incidence rates. Results. There were 281 emergency risk orders and 173 final risk orders between July 2020 and June 2022. Most risk order respondents were white males in their mid-to-late 30s. Fifty-eight of the 133 localities in our study reported at least one risk order. However, the ten localities that issued the greatest numbers of risk orders issued 73% of all emergency risk orders and 67.6% of all final risk orders. Across the 58 localities in our dataset, the average incidence of emergency risk orders was 3 per 100,000 people per year and the average incidence of final risk orders was 2 per 100,000 people per year. Conclusions. The risk order is a relatively new law in Virginia. Though many of the descriptive statistics we calculated in Virginia are similar to what we see in other states with this law, more time is needed to examine its impact on gun violence.