Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says his state's "red flag" law "could have been used" to prevent the November 19 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. "It's really up to the local law enforcement entity how to use it," Polis said during a Face the Nation interview on Sunday. "In cases like this, where somebody can potentially be a danger, and there are signs that they are a danger, we have a legal way to temporarily remove custody of any weapons they might have. And this is an example of a case where it might have been used."
Polis was alluding to a June 2021 incident in which Laura Voepel, the mother of the 22-year-old man now charged with murdering five people at Club Q, reported that he had threatened her with a homemade bomb. The governor said Voepel did not seek an "extreme risk protection order" (ERPO) against her son, which would have barred him from possessing or buying firearms. But since Colorado's red flag law also authorizes police to ask judges for ERPOs, that need not have been the end of the matter. "It wasn't pursued by the local sheriff agency," Polis noted. "I'm sure what will be looked into is why wasn't it pursued."
