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SB 406

Board of Respiratory Care rule relating to telehealth practice requirements and definitions

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Jack Woodrum

Creates an ERPO process to temporarily bar firearms for those posing imminent danger, allowing seizure of guns with due process, reporting, and protections for petitioners.

Reported in Com. Sub. for S. B. 369
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Bill Summary · SB 406

SB 406 — "Allow ERPOs to Prevent Suicides and Save Lives" (North Carolina)

Status: Passed 1st Reading (Introduced Feb 14, 2025)
Subject areas: public safety; firearms; courts; domestic violence; mental health

Main purpose

Establishes an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) process to temporarily restrict a person’s access to firearms when there is evidence they pose a significant danger of physical harm to themselves or others. The bill also authorizes seizure of firearms, ammunition, and permits that a respondent fails to surrender after emergency or ex parte domestic-violence protective orders, and builds procedural safeguards and reporting requirements into the process.

Key provisions

  • Creates a new Chapter 50E (Extreme Risk Protection Orders Act).
  • Definitions:
    • ERPO — the court order issued under the chapter.
    • Family/household member — includes relatives, current/former dating partners, persons who share a child with the respondent, domestic partners, legal guardians, and other close family relationships.
    • Firearm — broadly defined to include weapons designed to expel a projectile by explosive action (and frame/receiver).
  • Who may petition (verified petition in district court):
    • Family or household members
    • Current or former spouses or dating partners
    • Law enforcement officers or agencies
    • Health care providers
  • Petition content requirements:
    • Allegation (with supporting facts) that respondent poses (or, for ex parte requests, imminently poses) danger by possessing firearms.
    • Best-known identification of number, types, and locations of firearms.
    • Identification of existing protection orders and pending legal actions between parties.
  • Ex parte (emergency) relief allowed where petitioner alleges imminent danger.
  • Process & service:
    • Summons and supporting documents must be issued and served (clerk arranges service through law enforcement).
    • Except as otherwise provided, a summons must be served not later than five days before the final ERPO hearing.
    • Electronic filing permitted.
    • No court costs for filing or service of ERPO petitions or orders.
  • Remedies and enforcement (statutory provisions require):
    • ERPOs may temporarily prohibit possession of firearms and related permits.
    • Courts may order seizure of firearms, ammunition, or permits not surrendered after emergency/ex parte domestic-violence protective orders (text provides for seizure/remedy provisions).
    • Statute contemplates mental-health or chemical-dependency evaluation components (see §50E-6).
  • Confidentiality protections:
    • Petitioners eligible for the State Address Confidentiality Program may use substitute addresses; other address nondisclosure protections apply if petitioner shows risk to safety.
  • Reporting requirement:
    • Administrative Office of the Courts must produce an annual report (beginning Dec 1, 2025) to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice & Public Safety and the Fiscal Research Division including: number of petitions, ex parte ERPOs issued/declined, final ERPOs issued/declined, and reasons for denial.

Who is affected

  • Respondents: individuals alleged to pose an imminent danger; may face temporary loss of firearm access and potential seizure.
  • Petitioners: family, intimate partners, law enforcement, and health care providers gain a civil remedy to request temporary firearm restrictions.
  • Courts, clerks, and law enforcement: responsible for processing, service, seizure, and enforcement.
  • Public health and safety stakeholders: potential tool for suicide prevention and domestic-violence risk mitigation.

Procedural/timeline aspects

  • Ex parte (emergency) orders can be sought immediately where imminent danger is alleged; final hearing follows after service (summons generally served at least five days before final hearing).
  • Annual administrative reporting begins Dec 1, 2025.
  • No filing or service costs are charged to petitioners.

Practical implications

  • Creates a civil legal pathway to temporarily remove firearms from people judged to pose a significant risk to self/others, balancing public-safety aims with court-ordered due-process protections (petition, hearing, defined petitioners, service rules).
  • Implementation will require court procedures, law-enforcement seizure protocols, clerical processes for service and filing, and tracking/reporting systems.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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