Sponsor
Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator · D-NY
Senator · D-NY
Official title: Amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to award grants for providing legal resources for petitioners seeking extreme risk protection orders, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Kirsten Gillibrand · Last progress February 12, 2026
The bill expands access to legal help and builds local ERPO capacity—encouraging timely petitions that can prevent gun violence—while shifting some costs to taxpayers and local governments and limiting federal court review in related civil claims, which may reduce uniformity of remedies and constrain respondents' legal options.
Low-income petitioners (including immigrants, parents, and families) and community legal nonprofits gain substantially expanded access to counsel, language services, and local legal assistance because the bill funds legal resource centers, subgrants, and staffing for ERPO processes.
State, local, and Tribal governments receive dedicated implementation funding and staffing support (e.g., $50M/year grants for 2027–2031) to build court/legal infrastructure for ERPOs, increasing capacity to process orders.
Training for courts, prosecutors, and law enforcement and protections against retaliatory lawsuits reduce confusion between ERPOs and domestic violence orders and lower the legal risk for petitioners, encouraging timely petitions that can prevent gun violence and reducing some federal litigation costs.
People named in ERPO-related claims lose access to federal courts for certain civil claims, which may limit legal remedies for respondents, shift litigation and enforcement costs and responsibilities to state/local/Tribal governments, and create inconsistent outcomes across jurisdictions.
Expanding ERPO support and lowering barriers to filing may increase the number of petitions and result in more temporary firearm restrictions for named individuals during proceedings, affecting respondents' firearm rights even before final adjudication.
The federal program increases spending by roughly $250 million over five years, meaning higher near-term costs for taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes DOJ grants to fund legal representation and resources for ERPO petitioners and bars certain federal-court suits against good-faith petitioners.
Provides federal grant funding to states, localities, and Tribal governments to give legal representation and related services to people who are eligible to petition for extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs). It allows grant money to pay for attorneys, interpreters, legal resource centers, staffing, subgrants to legal aid nonprofits, and training, and it authorizes $50 million per year for 2027–2031. The bill also protects qualifying petitioners from federal-court suits brought in response to filing an ERPO petition, unless the petitioner filed a false or intentionally harassing petition.