Worried about the future? Now is the time to get involved! Who you are paying to teach about ERPO’s, what you’re paying for, and how much.
Worried about the future? Now is the time to get involved!
I liked Mr. Wark's title so much, I stole it. Nothing I could do to improve it.
In an effort to convince you to get involved (and provide multiple ways for you to start if you don't know how), I present you Free State Colorado's recent post about getting involved.
In keeping with what I wrote above, Wark's post is not just cheerleading. He details several concrete things you can do. In particular, I'd direct you to start at the section headed with "Where Do I Start?"
Starting at that heading you will find a ton of links that point you to easy, tangible actions that can get you rolling. Worth a read.
Nothing succeeds like success. Think back to the last time you did something you were proud of. My guess is that this was either preceded by a goal that was smaller that motivated you to go bigger, or that this goal was the impetus to reach out to one that was bigger.
Getting involved will be no different. Do not sit around waiting for the stars to align or for that one opportunity where doing some small thing will launch a movement. Start small, start realistic, start achievable.
Use those small successes to build bigger ones. Wark has a good way to put it so I will end by putting up a screenshot from his post.
Getting upset at the direction this state is headed is a good start, now turn that upset into action.
https://freestatecolorado.com/involved/
Who you are paying to teach about ERPO’s, what you’re paying for, and how much.
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention June Newsletter had an interesting blurb in it.
Per a 2023 law (see the first link below) a whole new slew of people can initiate an Extreme Risk Protection Order, ERPO, on a gun owner.
The newly expanded group now includes educators, licensed health care professionals, mental health professionals, and district attorneys.
In the June newsletter, the Office said that it was putting out a contract for a company to do a curriculum training health care (and, if memory serves, mental health professionals) on ERPO's. It's something I've been watching ever since.
There is no curriculum yet, but the group which will produce it has been named and contracted with CDPHE. I thought I would update and provide you a copy of the contract in case you were curious like me.
Linked 2nd and 3rd below are the contract between "The Idea Marketing" and CDPHE and an option letter.**
A lot of what you'll find in these contracts are boilerplate. Most of that I have seen before in other state contracts.
The interesting thing to me begins under the heading "Statement of Work" (p 30 in the PDF). I took some screenshots of the parts that caught my eye.
Screenshot 1 gives a sense of both what CDPHE wants The Idea Marketing to do and, in an abbreviated sense, why.
Screenshot 2 shows who the marketing efforts will be geared toward (here I am going to step in with my own editorial comment in calling this a "marketing effort" because its clear in the language of this agreement that this is as much marketing as it is educating notwithstanding what the Office of Gun Violence Prevention's June newsletter characterized it as).
Screenshot 3 shows the one of the three primary activities that CDPHE wants The Idea Marketing to undertake. The other two are in the contract of course, it's just that this is the only one that caught my eye as it relates directly to what kinds of training materials for healthcare will be produced.
There will be more to the story and I will post updates as I have them. In particular, be watching for the training materials for healthcare workers and ERPO's.
Last thing. It's something I was curious at so my guess is you are too. The contract maximum amount is $1.28 million tax dollars paid to The Idea Marketing.
**I'm not a lawyer, and am not sure (please comment if you do know better so we can all learn), but I think an option letter is just a formal addendum to a contract that outlines in a specific way the different possible ways the parties to a contract can satisfy that contract. Something akin to a contract saying "you will take out the trash and I'll give you a dollar" with an option letter saying things like, the trash can go out tomorrow or the day after, and that payment can come as 1 paper dollar or 4 quarters.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb23-170
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-h575bCXFYzxH_fMZG9VohGCV2Bz25EF/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UTR9IBubN_UPKCTnT3JRDaT78_9q2Q2T/view?usp=sharing