Georgia does not have a red flag law. No statute in the state allows a family member, a police officer, or anyone else to petition a court for an order temporarily taking firearms away from a person who seems dangerous. About 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed some version of an Extreme Risk Protection Order; Georgia is not one of them. The only ways firearms get removed here run through other proceedings: involuntary commitment, certain domestic violence protective orders, and the federal prohibitions that attach to them.
What a Red Flag Law Would Allow
Extreme Risk Protection Orders let specific people, usually close family, household members, or law enforcement, ask a judge to temporarily disarm someone who appears to pose a serious risk to themselves or others. In states that have them, a judge can issue a short emergency order without the gun owner present, firearms are surrendered, and a full hearing follows. If the risk is confirmed, a final order typically bars the person from having or buying firearms for up to a year, with renewal possible after another hearing.
None of this is available in Georgia. If you believe a relative or neighbor is in an imminent crisis with firearms in the house, you cannot walk into a Georgia court and request that kind of order.
Why Georgia Has No Red Flag Law
Multiple attempts to pass an ERPO statute in Georgia have stalled. The most recent, Senate Bill 92 in the 2025–2026 session, proposed a “Risk Protection Order” framework that would have let law enforcement petition for temporary firearm removal when someone posed a significant danger. As of early 2025, it remained in committee with no sign of advancing. Earlier bills ended the same way.
Involuntary Commitment and the Five-Year Handgun Bar
The closest Georgia mechanism to a red flag law is involuntary commitment, and it is not really a close match. The point of the proceeding is to get someone into treatment; the firearm restriction is a downstream effect.
Georgia has two separate involuntary treatment tracks. The mental health track covers people who present a substantial risk of imminent harm to themselves or others, shown by recent threats or violent behavior, or who are so impaired they cannot meet their own basic needs. The substance abuse track covers people who pose a substantial risk of harm due to alcohol or drug dependence and need involuntary treatment. A family member, officer, or medical professional files a petition in probate court. If the judge finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that involuntary treatment is warranted, a commitment order is issued.
Once someone is involuntarily hospitalized, the hospitalization is reported to the Georgia Crime Information Center. For the next five years, that person is prohibited from purchasing or possessing a handgun. The GCIC is required to purge the hospitalization record within 30 days after the five-year period expires, and the state prohibition lifts automatically at that point.
Federal law reaches further. Anyone who has been committed to a mental institution is barred from possessing any firearm or ammunition under federal law, with no automatic sunset. Even after Georgia purges its records, the federal prohibition can still apply unless the person pursues relief through the appropriate channels.
Challenging a Firearm Prohibition After Commitment
If the GCIC has flagged someone as prohibited due to an involuntary hospitalization within the past five years, that person or an attorney can request to inspect the records. The GCIC must provide the hospitalization record and inform the person of the right to a hearing before a probate court or superior court judge on eligibility to possess or transport a handgun.
Protective Orders in Family Violence Cases
Georgia’s Family Violence Act lets victims petition the Superior Court for a Temporary Protective Order. “Family violence” covers physical harm, assault, battery, stalking, property damage, and similar conduct between people in certain relationships, including current or former spouses, parents of the same child, parents and children, and current or former household members.
A judge can order the respondent to stop the abusive conduct, grant the victim possession of a shared home and exclude the respondent, award temporary custody and set visitation, order spousal or child support, and require psychiatric or psychological treatment.
What the statute does not do is list firearm surrender or a firearms prohibition as a specific remedy a judge can impose. The law contains broad language allowing orders aimed at ending the family violence, which some courts may read as authorizing firearm restrictions, but firearms are not an enumerated remedy the way custody or exclusion from the home is. This is one of the clearest gaps between Georgia and states that have red flag laws.
Federal law can fill part of that gap. A person subject to a qualifying domestic violence protective order is federally prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition. To qualify, the order must have been issued after a hearing where the respondent had notice and an opportunity to participate; it must restrain the respondent from threatening or harassing an intimate partner or that partner’s child; and it must either include a finding that the respondent is a credible threat to the partner’s physical safety or explicitly prohibit the use of physical force against them. A Georgia TPO that meets those criteria triggers the federal prohibition regardless of whether the state order itself mentions firearms.
A final family violence protective order can last up to one year. The petitioner can later ask the court to convert it to an order lasting up to three years, or to make it permanent, after another hearing with notice to the respondent. There is no filing fee for a family violence protective order, and violating one is a criminal offense in Georgia.
When Someone Is Dangerous Right Now
Georgia law leaves a specific blind spot: situations where someone is clearly dangerous but has not been involuntarily committed and is not subject to a qualifying domestic violence order. A coworker making threats, an adult child in a violent crisis, a neighbor stockpiling weapons and posting alarming statements. In an ERPO state, family or police can go to court before something happens. In Georgia, there is no equivalent petition to file.
If you believe someone poses an immediate threat of gun violence, calling 911 is the most direct option; law enforcement can take emergency action to protect public safety. If the danger is from a family or household member, a family violence protective order gives you meaningful protection, and when the order meets the federal criteria it carries an independent firearms prohibition under federal law. If the person meets the standard for involuntary commitment, filing that petition in probate court starts a process that, if it ends in commitment, will keep them from legally buying or possessing a handgun in Georgia for five years and may bar firearms under federal law indefinitely. Beyond those routes, Georgia’s toolkit for separating a dangerous person from their guns is narrower than what roughly 20 other states offer.