NYC has a tool to keep guns away from dangerous people. It barely uses it.

New York City rarely leverages state laws meant to prevent potentially dangerous people from having or buying guns, state data show s.

Now, as the number of people seeking permits to arm themselves in the city grows following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision aimed at making it easier to carry a gun, anti-violence advocates are asking whether local officials have dedicated enough attention to a tool that could prevent shootings and save lives.

In the last five years, the state has passed several measures encouraging — and in some cases requiring — police, prosecutors and family members to ask judges for documents known as extreme risk protection orders, which prohibit certain people from obtaining or keeping guns. The law , which was expanded after the 2022 mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, targets people who authorities believe would use legal guns to do harm – often domestic violence and suicide.

Now, physicians, psychiatrists and other medical providers are authorized to seek orders for their patients. Police and prosecutors are also mandated to apply when they receive “credible information” that someone is likely to seriously harm themself or someone else.

But since 2019, New York City courts have issued only about 1% of the state's orders despite the city having about 40% of the state’s population. By contrast, Long Island’s Suffolk County, which has about 13% of the state’s population, has issued more than 30% of the orders in that same time — the most of any county in the state.

Giffords Law Center Chief Counsel Adam Skaggs said New York city residents might be better off if local law enforcement adopted some of Suffolk County’s training and protocols for these orders.

“What's at stake is that people who are known to pose a danger to themselves or another person are not disarmed, and all too often may end up carrying out the danger that has brought them to law enforcement's attention or the attention of a family member,” said Skaggs, whose organization advocates for gun safety policy.

Suffolk County ramped up its use of extreme risk protection orders in 2022, after a teen who had threatened violence in the past killed 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store. Judges in the county have issued more than 6,400 of them in the last five years, and now issue about 200 temporary or final extreme risk protection orders each month, according to court data. The county issued nearly 250 of them in July.

Suffolk officials say the orders are saving lives. Suffolk County Chief Deputy Sheriff Chris Brockmeyer said local law enforcement and the courts have worked together to streamline how extreme risk protection orders are issued and have made it a priority to issue them in necessary cases, especially when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis or has been accused of domestic violence.

“We've refined our ability to get this done as quickly as we can, based on the circumstances,” said Brockmeyer, who oversees the unit that serves the orders and searches for guns to confiscate.

He compared issuing an extreme risk protection order to arresting someone for drunk driving — a legal proceeding that could cause anxiety, but could also prevent a deadly outcome.

“We've seen how lives have been destroyed in those scenarios, and I look at this scenario very similarly,” he said. “The potential of harm if we don't do anything is just as great.”

State Office of Court Administration spokesperson Al Baker said in a statement that the number of applications is “significantly higher outside New York City” and that judges receive continuing education to ensure they know when to issue extreme risk protection orders.

In New York City, police and prosecutors rarely apply for extreme risk protection orders. City courts have issued fewer than 230 temporary or final extreme risk protection orders over the last five years, according to state data. The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens are among the counties statewide that have issued the fewest orders, despite being home to about 7.7 million people combined.

The NYPD has filed for just 35 of the extreme risk protection orders issued since 2019, state data shows. Prosecutors in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens have each applied for between four and seven of them, while the DA’s office in Brooklyn has applied for 16. The Richmond County DA’s Office on Staten Island uses them the most of any city law enforcement agency, and asked judges to impose about 100 of the orders handed down in the last five years.

Richmond County DA’s Office spokesperson James Clinton said the office assigned a prosecutor specifically to handle extreme risk protection orders when the state first created them in 2019 and screens cases in the early stages of prosecution to see if one should be sought. He also noted that the state law didn’t come with funding for extra staffing to litigate these types of cases.

Spokespeople for the Bronx and Queens DA’s office said their prosecutors receive training on how to apply for extreme risk protection orders and when to use them. The Manhattan DA’s office said the orders are among many tools they can use to curb gun violence, along with orders of protection and search warrants. A spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA’s office declined to comment.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the department’s patrol guide instructs officers that an extreme risk protection order “should be sought” when they have “reasonable cause to believe that an individual who has access to, or intends to acquire a firearm, is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to them self or others.”

‘This is a fatality risk’

Domestic violence advocates in New York and across the country have also advocated for these types of orders to prevent shootings. Last month, after a woman was killed in what police said was a murder-suicide on the Upper East Side , some advocates and loved ones wondered whether an extreme risk protection order could have prevented the crime. Police said Kathleen Leigh, 65, fatally shot Marisa Galloway, 45, and then herself, after a prolonged custody dispute. They said officers had responded to five domestic incident reports and two complaint reports before the killing, but had not made any arrests.

The NYPD did not respond to questions about whether the NYPD knew Leigh was armed or whether it had applied for an extreme risk protection order against her.

Some of Galloway’s friends told Gothamist they wish police had done more to prevent her killing, given how many times they had been called. Natalie Blundell, founder of the advocacy group WeSpoke, said any lengthy custody or divorce case should send warning signs to police and court officials, who she said should make sure that no one involved has access to a gun.

“This is a litigious case. This should be escalated. This should be on file somewhere,” said Blundell, who lobbies for better treatment of women in New York’s family court system. “This is a fatality risk.”

A friend of Galloway’s, Alysia Dusseau, said she wants to know whether police ever asked if anyone involved in the custody dispute was armed.

“Maybe it’s assumed that they’re not, because we’re in New York City,” she said. “But that definitely should be a question in any custody fight.”

Skaggs, with Giffords, said the lower rate of legal gun ownership in New York City may play a role in the smaller number of extreme risk protection orders issued — though someone is not required to own a gun to be subjected to one.

Regardless of gun ownership rates, Skaggs said it’s also common in other states for the use of these types of orders to vary from county to county. He said the effectiveness of these measures — also known as “red flag” laws — largely depends on the training local law enforcement and court officials receive. It’s important for family members to know that they can apply for extreme risk protection orders, too, he said.

“If there's not sufficient training and education to make sure that officers are actually doing what the law says they should be doing, then you can strengthen it on the books, and that's not a bad thing,” Skaggs said. “But without efforts to make sure it's implemented effectively, it's no guarantee that it will be.”

Brittany Kriegstein contributed to this story.