S. 889 — Extreme Risk Protection Order Expansion Act of 2025

This section establishes a grant program under which the Attorney General may award grants to eligible entities—states or Indian tribes that enact complying extreme risk protection order (ERPO) legislation, or units of local government or other entities in such jurisdictions—to assist in implementing ERPO laws, which authorize courts to prohibit at-risk individuals from possessing firearms or require their surrender to reduce firearm-related death or injury. Eligible entities must certify that they will allocate 25-70% of grant funds to develop and disseminate training for law enforcement officers on the safe, impartial, effective, and equitable use of ERPOs, including addressing bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, language proficiency, mental health condition, disability, and classism, as well as appropriate use in domestic violence cases. Grant funds may be used to (1) enhance law enforcement and court capacity through personnel, training, technical assistance, and data collection; (2) train judges, court personnel, health care and legal professionals, and law enforcement to identify individuals posing a danger of firearm suicide or interpersonal violence; (3) develop protocols, forms, and orders for safe firearm removal and storage; and (4) raise public awareness, including through subgrants to community-based organizations.

This section expands the federal firearms prohibitions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(d)—which bars sales or transfers to certain persons—and § 922(g)—which bars possession, shipment, transport, or receipt by certain persons—by adding as a new category in each any individual subject to a court order that (A) was issued after a hearing with actual notice and an opportunity to participate, (B) restrains the individual from possessing or receiving firearms, and (C) includes a finding that the individual poses a danger of harm to self or others. (Thus, the new prohibitions apply symmetrically to both possessors and transferors.)

This section requires the Attorney General to acquire, collect, classify, and preserve records from Federal, Tribal, and State courts and other agencies identifying individuals subject to extreme risk protection orders, as defined in section 2(a) of the Extreme Risk Protection Order Expansion Act of 2025. It authorizes Federal, Tribal, and State criminal justice agencies and criminal or civil courts to include such orders in national crime information databases and to access related information through those databases. (Thus, extreme risk protection order records (i.e., civil orders prohibiting firearm possession by individuals at risk of harming themselves or others) integrate into federal systems such as the FBI's National Crime Information Center for law enforcement and background check purposes.)

This section requires courts and law enforcement in every state and Indian tribe to give full faith and credit to any extreme risk protection order issued under a qualifying state or tribal law, enforcing it as if issued by the enforcing jurisdiction, provided the issuing court had jurisdiction over the parties and subject matter and the respondent received reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard sufficient for due process (for ex parte orders, such notice within the time required by state or tribal law and in any event within a reasonable time after issuance). This section grants tribal courts full civil jurisdiction to issue and enforce such orders involving any person within the tribe's Indian country (as defined in 18 U.S.C. §1151) or otherwise within the tribe's authority, including through civil contempt proceedings, exclusion of violators from Indian land, and other mechanisms.

This section establishes a severability clause, providing that if any provision of this Act or its amendments, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and its amendments, and their application to other persons or circumstances, are not affected.