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This is Lindsay Smith Rogers.

Despite warnings from family and colleagues, the man who shot and killed 18 people in

Maine last month was still able to legally own the gun he used in the spree. Today, Stephanie

Desmond talks to Josh Horwitz of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions

about red flag laws and protective orders and how they can prevent dangerous people

from having firearms. Let's listen. Josh Horwitz, thanks so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me. I wanted to talk to you about red flag warnings and what they are

and what they can do and really in light of this

horrible shooting that took place not that long ago in Maine. What's a red flag warning?

So red flag laws and the way I describe them are extreme risk protection orders. Red flag is sort

of a colloquial way we talk about them, but they're actually extreme risk orders. And extreme risk orders are temporary civil protection

orders focused on whether the respondent is a danger to sell for others. And so if there's a

finding that that's in fact the case, a firearm can be removed up to one year.

And these are laws that have been enacted in 21 states in the District of Columbia.

They're done with a civil process, much like a domestic violence protective order.

And they're only focused on looking at the firearm and should a firearm be removed from a

potentially dangerous situation. So how do we get to that point? How does someone come to the

attention, I guess, of the court system, law enforcement? How does this happen? Well, in all states that

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