Florida's 'red flag' law, taking guns from dangerous people, seldom invoked in Lake County

TAVARES — The call to the Eustis Police Department on Valentine’s Day was disturbing.

The woman said her husband had a drinking problem so severe she told him it made her “want out."

Then, he said, “…if you want to kill yourself, we will both go,” according to an arrest affidavit.

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He left the kitchen and went into the dining room. Then, she heard a gun go off.

Officers didn’t have to take her word for it. They could see the bullet hole in the dining room table and in the floor, according to the affidavit.

Days earlier, he shot a hole in a wall, she said. The scary part? Children were in a nearby room.

The call set off a chain of events that resulted in police seeking a risk protection order to seize his weapons.

Risk protection injunctions are among the changes that lawmakers enacted after the Parkland High School massacre in 2018.

She said her husband had never owned a gun until six months earlier, and that he had recently spent $30,000 on firearms.

The husband admitted discharging the firearm in the dining room. He claimed the Glock 29 handgun went off while sliding in a magazine and “the trigger ended up being pulled.”

He said this, officers noted in the affidavit, while his breath reeked of alcohol.

Police arrested him and charged him with aggravated assault, child neglect and discharging a firearm in a residence.

His wife asked that officers take custody of his firearms: 21 handguns, two shotguns and an AR-15 rifle. The petition was granted.

The procedure for seeking a risk order

Petitions for risk orders must be filed by a law enforcement agency. A hearing is then set up, and a judge must rule on the request.

The injunctions are unusual, but not unheard of, according to Lake County Clerk of Court Gary Cooney.

In 2018, the first year the program, six petitions were filed, and all were granted. In 2019, five were filed and four granted. In 2020, four were filed and three granted. Last year, nine were filed and eight granted. This year, two have been filed and both were granted, but one was later vacated.

Most are filed within the context of domestic violence allegations. These cases can come with standard injunctions for protection: restraining orders, if requested by the alleged victim, banning contact or communication.

Risk protective injunctions seizing firearms and ammunition can be issued if a person is involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, is arrested for a criminal violation, or when a person has allegedly abused or neglected a child.

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So-called firearm “red flag laws” are not without controversy.

“If a family member, co-worker, perhaps a physician, somehow believes – or decides –you may be a threat, they can call authorities with a story about you and empower authorities to seize your firearms. Your Second Amendment rights now fall victim to a disgruntled employee, a neighbor with a grudge or an estranged spouse who can fabricate an accusation allowing the police to remove guns from your home or person,” Mark W. Smith wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in 2019.

Smith, an attorney and senior fellow of law and public policy at King’s College in New York City, said such laws force lawful citizens to pay “immense costs” to defend themselves in court “and fight against the stigma of being labeled a ‘public threat.’”

Once a petition is filed, a hearing is held. In Florida, the petitioner has the burden of proof. The respondent can present his or her own evidence, according to the Virga Law Firm website, which offers legal services to respondents from its offices in Orlando and other cities. The respondent can also appeal.

Injunctions, if granted, cannot be for more than a year, but can be less than a year.

A request for an extension requires another hearing and burden of proof on the petitioner again.

Firearms are transferred to the law enforcement agency that filed the petition, or to another individual under certain conditions.

Suicide threats are one reason people seek protection orders

Suicide threats also fall under potential risk protection orders.

On Jan. 30, a 17-year-old called the Lake Sheriff’s Office and said that she spotted suicide threats on social media posted by her mother. Then, she saw that her mother was in a vehicle in the backyard with a handgun. The woman was holding the gun to her head when deputies arrived.

“The respondent told deputies she was under extreme stress as another daughter recently died of suicide at the same location in the backyard on 10 Jan. 2022,” the sheriff’s report said.

Deputies took her into custody.

The next day, deputies met with the girl and an adult sister. The older sister said she feared for her young sister’s life, too.

The girl told deputies her mother threatened to drive off a bridge in 2018 when she was a passenger in the car after leaving a therapy session. She said her mother bought the handgun after her sister’s suicide. Police filed a risk protection petition, which eventually was granted.

There is no guarantee that an injunction ensures anybody’s safety. It’s just a piece of paper, after all.

The biggest problem is that a lot of domestic violence cases are shelved when the complainant drops the charges.

Circuit Judge Mark Hill, now retired, recalled seeing a woman with a broken nose outside the courthouse who begged him to release her husband from jail.

“Ma’am, you need to get help for yourself,” he told her.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Florida's 'red flag' law targeting guns seldom invoked in Lake County