Raising Awareness
About Extreme Risk Laws

Since 2018, the One Thing You Can Do campaign has been raising awareness about extreme risk laws. These laws provide an important avenue for intervention by reducing access to a firearm when someone in crisis is showing serious signs that they are at risk of harming themselves or others. While extreme risk orders are called by varying names in different states, they all serve the same important role: to protect individuals and communities from gun violence.

In the past several years, extreme risk laws have been enacted in a growing number of states across the country; they now exist in 21 states and Washington D.C., meaning over half of the population of the United States lives in states where people have access to extreme risk laws.

Extreme risk laws are an effective way to temporarily remove access to guns from someone who is showing serious signs that they may harm themselves or someone else. They provide a way for loved ones and others to intervene and prevent incidents such as firearm suicide, school shootings, workplace shootings, and other instances of interpersonal violence.

As extreme risk laws are passed in more states, raising public awareness about them is crucial.  One Thing You Can Do provides an overview of the life-saving potential of extreme risk laws and aims to familiarize the general public, as well as other important stakeholders, with how they work in each state.