Landmark bipartisan gun legislation passed by Congress over the summer into action, more than $230 million for gun violence programs

WASHINGTON — As part of the landmark bipartisan gun law that Congress passed over the summer, officials said Tuesday that the Justice Department will send out more than $200 million to help states and the District of Columbia run “red-flag laws” and other programs to help people in crisis.

Red-flag laws, which are also called “extreme risk protection orders,” are meant to temporarily take guns away from people who seem like they might hurt themselves or others. There are red-flag laws in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

“This money will save lives and cut down on gun violence,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Some of the $231 million in funding that was announced on Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, will also go to crisis-intervention court proceedings and other programs to reduce gun violence.

President Joe Biden and others have said that red-flag laws are a powerful way to stop gun violence before it starts. But a study by the Associated Press found that they are often not used enough, even though the number of shootings and gun deaths in the U.S. is on the rise. That can be because people don’t know the laws or don’t want to enforce them.

For example, the suspect in a November mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was said to have threatened his mother with a homemade bomb a year and a half earlier, but there is no record that police or family members tried to use Colorado’s law.

The laws vary from state to state, but in general, family members or law enforcement can ask a court for an order to take away guns for up to a year. Some critics worry that they could be used in a way that goes against the Second Amendment. The Justice Department said that the program has built-in checks to make sure that everyone gets a fair trial.

The money is part of the $1.4 billion that the law gives to the Justice Department over the next five years to help stop gun violence.

The law about gun violence that was passed in June was the most comprehensive one in a long time. It made it harder for young people to buy guns, stopped more domestic abusers from getting guns, and gave more money to mental health programs and schools.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the money will “help protect children, families, and communities across the country from senseless acts of gun violence.”