Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

On Saturday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) responded to news of the creation of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, a new governmental organization dedicated to keeping “firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.”

“What the hell is this evil?” Massie wrote in a post on X. “A Federal Red Flag center; We did not authorize this. Announced, of course, just hours after the omnibus passes.”

Massie also accused the DOJ of waiting “until the omnibus passed before announcing the new National Red Flag Center, so you wouldn’t know what the omnibus money is being spent on.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) responded to Massie’s comments, reiterating that, “We did not authorize this,” further noting that the aforementioned omnibus included $200 million “for a new FBI headquarters.”

In a statement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the creation of the new resource center, stating that it will “provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.”

“The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the statement. “The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”

Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws are controversial policies more commonly known as red flag laws, which allow law enforcement, family members, and medical professionals or other groups in some states, to request that a court temporarily prohibit someone “at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms for the duration of the order.”

The new resource center has drawn the ire of several conservatives, who hold House Speaker Mike Johnson partially responsible for its creation as an unexpected consequence of passing the $1.2 trillion federal funding bill, in order to avoid a partial government shutdown. 

This also comes just one day after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to oust Johnson, accusing him of having “betrayed” the “confidence” of the House GOP Conference by aiding in the passage of the bill.

“Merrick Garland just announced a massive Red Flag Operation that the DOJ will be running by using EVERY spy tool the US government has in order to violate American’s Second Amendment!! This comes right after Johnson fully funded Biden’s weaponized DOJ!” Greene wrote on X relating to the announcement of the resource center.