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Colorado’s Attorney General is rolling out a new program to train teachers on how to use the state’s “red flag” law to petition courts for the seizure of firearms.
An Unconstitutional Solution In Search Of A Crisis To Exploit
Colorado passed its red flag statute, formally the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), in 2019. It allows courts to temporarily confiscate firearms from individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others. Initially limited to family members and law enforcement, the legislature expanded eligibility in 2023 to include educators and health professionals.
The law has led to 714 requested disarmaments, with around 68% (~500 granted) statewide from all reporting persons. And the state is disappointed in the schools — only two petitions came from college faculty and K–12 educator petitions involving minors are sealed, making them impossible to tally (though media reporting suggests that number is also low).
Despite state leaders’ turning teachers into LEOs, teachers appear hesitant to take on that role. Attorney General Phil Weiser has argued that’s because educators remain unaware of their legal authority.
“Teachers don’t know about it,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, according to reporting by CPR earlier this week. “When young people are struggling [or] contemplating suicide and make statements like, ‘I know where my dad keeps the gun’ or ‘I have access to a gun and I’m going to take my life,’ that’s a call to action. It’s important we use all the tools we can to prevent gun violence.”
His office points to statistics showing firearms have become the leading cause of death among youth nationwide, citing CDC data that includes suicides, homicides, and accidents. A 2023 survey of Colorado middle schoolers reported that 21 percent believed they could access a loaded gun within an hour.
Let’s cut through the state’s spin. Gun-owning families teach kids safety and responsibility from a young age. Historically, schools did too — gun safety programs were common in American high schools through the mid-20th century, often backed by groups like the NRA, until gun control laws (post-1968) phased them out. (Then Americans became terrified of guns.)
Now, Weiser’s office wants teachers — a group of state actors with an outsized number of grooming scandals in Colorado’s schools — to use kids’ to disarm their parents. This isn’t about safety; it’s about control.
The Attorney General’s office is offering the “ERPO Curriculum for Educators.” The course includes two 30-minute virtual sessions, one on the basics of the law and the other on how to file a petition. Versions exist for both K–12 and college educators, and participation counts toward professional development credit.
You Can't Do That In Government
Make no mistake on what this actually is: A program encouraging teachers to initiate legal actions that can result in armed officers removing firearms from homes, often before the gun owners even know a petition has been filed.
ERPOs in Colorado can be issued ex parte, meaning a judge can order gun seizures without the respondent present. A hearing is required within 14 days, but in the meantime, firearms may already be confiscated. And the implications of using teachers for this are even more disturbing. A teacher’s report about a student’s access to firearms could spark a court order against that student’s family — deputizing educators into law enforcement roles and using kids to take legal action against their parents.
This pits children against parents, strains parents' already-eroded trust in schools, and further infringes on family autonomy. Considering the Office enacting this policy, these three outcomes are likely closer to the program’s true intent.
Regardless of why they say they need it, it’s unconstitutional.
The right to keep and bear arms was recognized as a core individual liberty. While 18th-century laws occasionally restricted arms for the mentally ill or dangerous, they did so narrowly and with clear judicial oversight. Colorado’s ERPO standard of “dangerousness,” is subjective and lacks historical precedent — but it’s also bad policy. It opens doors to disarm parents based on the speech or conduct of their children.
And it’s not just the Second Amendment in question. The seizure of firearms without prior notice resembles the general warrants the Founders rejected under the Fourth Amendment — probable cause traditionally required specific evidence of wrongdoing, not Minority Report-type predictions of potential future harm. The confiscation of firearms before a full hearing inverts the principle of due process under the Fifth Amendment as well, abandoning the historical requirement of notice and the right to defend one’s property.
As James Madison warned in Federalist No. 44, “The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less-informed part of the community.”
We're Still Weary
The people are still weary of the arbitrary actions of the state, especially here in Colorado.
Allowing public school teachers — agents of the state — to initiate firearm seizures against families risks precisely the sort of government overreach the Bill of Rights was designed to prevent. The government’s talking points frame the ERPO expansion as a life-saving measure — which is why they’re lamenting its low usage by teachers. But the program is presumptively invalid from a constitutional standpoint. The state’s steady creep of power into American life is repugnant to the literal law of the land.
Worst case? Pull the thread all the way, and you’ll realize that the same Colorado teachers grooming children are now in a position to disarm their victims’ parents. And let’s be honest — for Colorado leadership, that’s likely closer to the true intent of this program than anything else.
Shall not be infringed.
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...and nobody is doing anything about it.