ERPO: A Civil Approach to Gun Violence Prevention Teach-Out (Coursera)

ERPO: A Civil Approach to Gun Violence Prevention Teach-Out (Coursera)

Evidence shows that 1 life is saved for every 10-20 Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) issued. ERPOs are legally issued civil orders that allow people on the front lines to ask a court to prevent a person at imminent risk of harm to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing firearms during a critical period of risk. As of October 2020, ERPO laws have been enacted by nineteen states and the District of Columbia and while some aspects differ by state, the general process for applying and issuing ERPOs are quite similar.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

In this Teach-Out, a team of public health, policy, and medical experts will each provide a unique perspective to:

  1. Define what ERPO laws are and how they work;
  2. Share scientific evidence supporting ERPO laws as a public health approach to preventing gun violence and suicide;
  3. Describe specific considerations for those eligible to petition for (aka those who ask the court to issue) ERPOs on behalf of an individual—including law enforcement, health professionals, and personal family members;
  4. Discuss the legal process for passing, implementing, and enforcing ERPO laws;
  5. Recommend specific call to action activities for learners designed to encourage policy makers to implement ERPO laws in states without them and strengthen existing ERPO laws in states that already have them; and
  6. Provide opportunities for learners to engage in civil discourse and collective action to increase awareness about ERPOs and empower learners to advocate for ERPO laws to reduce and prevent gun violence in our communities.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
ERPO 101: Introduction to Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws
Clinicians as Petitioners for ERPO
Law Enforcement as Petitioners for ERPO
Family/Partners as Petitioners for ERPO

WEEK 2
Advocating for ERPOs
Upcoming Events: Live Webinar Discussion & ERPO Recommendations Report Release

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Designing and Building Institutional Anti-Racist Spaces (Coursera) Coursera
Wesleyan University

Designing and Building Institutional Anti-Racist Spaces (Coursera)

Designing and Building Institutional Antiracist Spaces (D-BIAS) is a course whose mission is to teach and apply tenets of equity, anti-racism, and cultural justice to students from Institutions to achieve social change. The course is aimed at educators and administrators in educational spaces, lawyers and advocates in spaces that touch civil rights, equity, and whose Institutional mission it is to achieve greater cultural equity.

Sep 21st 2026
4 Weeks
Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases (Coursera)

This course offers an introduction to the U.S. Constitution and landmark Supreme Court cases interpreting it. It explores the Constitution’s origins, its amendment over the years, and methods of constitutional interpretation. Topics include the nature and structure of the federal government, the powers of the federal government, and individual rights.

Sep 7th 2026
4 Weeks
Water Resources Management and Policy (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

Water Resources Management and Policy (Coursera)

Water management today is faced with new challenges such as climate change or the effects of human activity. Public and private stakeholders who are active in this field must develop new ways to better manage the water cycle "as a whole". The objective of this MOOC is to develop an understanding of the problems related to water management. Firstly, this course will define a resource and, more specifically, the resource of water.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine

Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties (Coursera)

Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law: Individual Rights and Liberties will highlight the construction and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution through the centuries with an emphasis on protections of individual liberties and the evolution of equal protection. You'll learn the history behind the Constitution, cases that formed important precedent, and how changes in interpretation have been dependent on shifts in cultural and political climate as well as the composition of the Supreme Court.

Sep 7th 2026
5-12 Weeks
A Law Student's Toolkit (Coursera) Coursera
Yale University

A Law Student's Toolkit (Coursera)

Whether you are an advanced law student looking to review the basics, or an aspiring law student looking for head start, this course will help you build the foundation you will need to succeed in law school and beyond. This course will introduce you to terminology, concepts, and tools lawyers and legal academics use to make their arguments. It will help you follow these arguments—and make arguments of your own.

Sep 28th 2026
3 Weeks
One Health: Pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response (Coursera) Coursera
Politecnico di Milano

One Health: Pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response (Coursera)

This course was developed by the Karolinska Institutet (KI) and the Federation of the European Academies of Medicine (FEAM) as part of the research project 'Pan-European Response to the Impacts of the COVID-19 and future Pandemics and Epidemics' (PERISCOPE). Funded by the European Commission Research Funding programme Horizon 2020 under the Grant Agreement number 101016233, PERISCOPE investigates the broad socio-economic and behavioural impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, to make Europe more resilient and prepared for future large-scale risks.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Helping Families Avoid Negative Court Involvement Teach-Out (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Helping Families Avoid Negative Court Involvement Teach-Out (Coursera)

This course will teach learners how to understand when issues can become legal issues, encourage learners to recognize legal problems early, identify possible “legal soft spots” in their own situations, and act when issues are identified to avoid them escalating. This course will also teach and encourage learners to think preventatively and provide some tools to use with an eye toward preventing future legal issues.

Sep 28th 2026
1 Week
European Business Law: Understanding the Fundamentals (Coursera) Coursera
Lund University

European Business Law: Understanding the Fundamentals (Coursera)

The European Union is one of the world’s largest and most important economies. This five week course is the first in a series of three that will provide students with an insight into European Business Law. The series ranges from considering the basic structures and principles of the European Union to focusing on various specialized areas of law. Each course will give the students an understanding of the laws and policies that regulate the internal market of European Union, as well as relevant case law and useful inputs from leading practitioners in the field.

Sep 7th 2026
5-12 Weeks
International Water Law (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

International Water Law (Coursera)

In recent decades, international law has undergone a series of major developments in order to accommodate the many new facets of freshwater management and protection. The adoption of universal, regional and basin instruments highlights how important it is to study the evolution of international water regulations and to be able to identify the main principles in this field. This course aims to provide the necessary background to understand and examine the regulation applicable to transboundary freshwaters especially to rivers, lakes and aquifers. It presents the principles and legal standards that govern the use, sharing, management and protection of these resources.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Internet Giants: The Law and Economics of Media Platforms (Coursera) Coursera
University of Chicago

Internet Giants: The Law and Economics of Media Platforms (Coursera)

Law

This seven-week course will explore the relationship between law and technology with a strong focus on the law of the United States with some comparisons to laws around the world, especially in Europe. Tech progress is an important source of economic growth and raises broader questions about the human condition, including how culture evolves and who controls that evolution. Technology also matters in countless other ways as it often establishes the framework in which governments interact with their citizens, both in allowing speech and blocking it and in establishing exactly what the boundaries are between private life and the government. And technology itself is powerfully shaped by the laws that apply in areas as diverse as copyright, antitrust, patents, privacy, speech law and the regulation of networks.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks