Michigan's red flag law is seeing heavy use. In 2025, judges across the state were asked more than 500 times to temporarily take guns from people flagged as potentially dangerous, with courts logging 514 extreme risk protection order complaints and granting 407 of them. The figures offer one of the first broad looks at how the law is playing out in real courtrooms.
Those numbers come from a State Court Administrative Office compilation reported by The Detroit News, which found that of the 514 complaints filed in 2025, judges granted 407 orders, 93 petitions were dismissed or denied and four had results not immediately available. Petitioners pulled back 10 complaints, and about 19 orders were later rescinded after hearings.
The law, formally the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, took effect on Feb. 13, 2024. In its first implementation period, the State Court Administrative Office's initial annual report logged 391 ERPO complaints and 287 orders issued, according to the office's 2024 annual report. The SCAO noted that county reporting systems vary and some data fields are still incomplete, a caveat that makes year-to-year comparisons tricky, per the State Court Administrative Office.
Who the Orders Named and How They Were Requested
According to the same statewide tally reviewed by The Detroit News, most respondents in 2025 were men, with 264 listed as male and 55 listed as female. The age group most often named in orders was people in their 30s, at 104 respondents.
The News' review also shows that most petitioners sought orders without giving prior notice. Roughly 326 ex parte requests were filed, including about 133 emergency ex parte requests, while 55 petitions were filed as non-ex parte.
How the ERPO Process Works
Under Michigan law, law enforcement officers, certain health professionals and family or household members can petition a circuit court for an ERPO that bars someone from buying or possessing firearms. In urgent situations, judges may issue temporary orders without notifying the person first, then hold a hearing afterward.
The Michigan Attorney General's office and the SCAO manual spell out the standards for ex parte and emergency ex parte orders along with the respondent's right to a hearing and to challenge the order, as per the Michigan Attorney General's Office.
Charges and Enforcement
Officials describe ERPOs as civil tools meant to reduce imminent risk, not criminal punishments. Even so, criminal charges sometimes follow in cases where prosecutors allege separate crimes. Early reports and court records indicate that only a minority of respondents faced criminal filings in the weeks after orders were entered, and many of those cases involved domestic violence or assault-related counts.
Juveniles and Data Gaps
The SCAO's early reporting shows that a small number of ERPO complaints were filed against minors during the initial reporting period. At the same time, the office warns that race, age and gender fields are often left blank in local court data feeds.
That patchy reporting has become a point of tension for both advocates and critics, who argue that better and more uniform data are needed to judge how consistently the law is being applied across different counties, per the State Court Administrative Office.
Advocates and Critics Respond
Gun-violence prevention groups have welcomed the early use of ERPOs as a promising tool to keep firearms away from people in crisis, pointing to the statewide tally as evidence that the process is actually being used on the ground. Everytown has highlighted the potential for the law to save lives.
At the same time, other outlets and lawmakers told Michigan Advance that they remain uneasy about due-process risks, particularly when orders are issued ex parte without the respondent present at the outset.
Court watchers, legislators and community groups say the next steps include clearer reporting and continued oversight as Michigan moves beyond the law's first year into broader, long-term use. The 2025 totals give the state its first full, statewide snapshot of how often judges are being asked to temporarily strip gun access under the ERPO law.
