Fairfax County Launches Public Awareness Campaign About 'Red Flag' Law

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County launched a public awareness campaign Monday about the state’s new “red flag” law, encouraging county residents to take advantage of the provisions in the law that could protect them and their loved ones from gun violence.

County officials, along with a domestic violence detective from the Fairfax County Police Department and the head of a national gun violence prevention organization, gathered at the county’s public safety headquarters to address how the new law works.

The campaign's slogan, “Prevent a Gun Tragedy: Speak Up,” aims to let the public know that they play a key role in the success of the red flag law.

Virginia's emergency substantial risk order law, commonly referred to as a “red flag” law, allows the Fairfax County Police Department to investigate and seek a court order to temporarily remove guns from people who have been determined an imminent danger to themselves or others.

The order prevents these people from purchasing, possessing, or transporting firearms, while providing procedural safeguards to ensure that no firearm is removed without due process.

Rodney Lusk, Lee District supervisor and chairman of the Fairfax County board's public safety committee, said he believes the public awareness campaign will "absolutely save lives" by educating the public about the tools they have to get a firearm out of the hands of someone who is showing signs of endangering themselves or others.

In 2020, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law Senate Bill 240 and House Bill 674, which created a legal mechanism for law enforcement to temporarily separate a person from their firearms when they represent a danger to themselves or others. Virginia joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia in having passed some type of red flag law.

State Sen. Amanda Chase, a Republican, called supporters of the new law “traitors” and said its passage would hurt law-abiding citizens. On the campaign trail earlier this year, Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) said he would support legislation to overturn the red flag law.

At Monday's event, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay said he hopes Youngkin does not seek to repeal the legislation. The Fairfax County board will "strongly fight" any legislation introduced to roll back the red flag law, McKay said.

Since Virginia's red flag law was signed by the governor last year, law enforcement officials in Fairfax County have issued 34 emergency substantial risk orders, the most of any jurisdiction in the state, according to Amanda Paris, a domestic violence detective with the Fairfax County Police Department. As part of these orders, 120 weapons have been taken from people in Fairfax County who have been found to be a danger to themselves or others.

More than 1,000 people die by guns each year in Virginia. Of this total, 75 people are intimate partners or family members of the perpetrator, Angela Yeboah, advocacy services program manager in the Office of Fairfax County Domestic and Sexual Violence Services, said Monday.

Women are five times more likely to be murdered by a husband or boyfriend when the partner has access to a firearm, Yeboah said.

The passage of the red flag law and Fairfax County's effort to encourage residents to call the police when they feel threatened by someone who possesses a firearm "is a positive step" and aligns with the goals of the Office of Domestic and Sexual Violence Services, she said.

Paul Friedman, executive director of Safer Country, an Alexandria-based nonprofit group that works to promote policies that keep guns out of unsafe hands, said Fairfax County's public awareness campaign about the red flag law is critical in a nation suffering from a "gun violence crisis."

Friedman, who noted that Tuesday is the ninth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, emphasized that the public's involvement in letting police know about people who pose a danger and possess a firearm is "critical to the law's success."

Fairfax County residents who know of someone with a gun acting in a troubling manner can request an emergency substantial risk order by calling the county police at 703-691-2131. Any resident in immediate danger should call 911.

Along with family members and friends, mental heath professionals are encouraged to report people who possess a gun and present a danger. But only an attorney in the Office of the Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney or a police officer can act on the report to seek or petition for an emergency substantial risk order.