Oh wait, it did not happen that way.
The first person to have his guns confiscated under Florida’s 2018 “red flag” law has been found guilty over his refusal to voluntarily surrender the weapons.
Jerron Smith, 33, now faces up to five years in prison after a jury in Broward County rejected his argument that he did not fully understand the new law. The jury returned the verdict Friday after a short trial.
Smith, of Deerfield Beach, was the subject of a risk protection order soon after the law was enacted in response to the Parkland high school mass shooting in February 2018.
First person charged under Florida ‘red flag’ law found guilty
A lot of people believe a law they supported will only apply against the group of people they do not like. And when they get caught in the same net, they realized they were useful idiots. To have a black man snared and sent to prison because of this crap law was not the ideal portrayal expected.
I do find interesting that Broward County’s Sun Sentinel identifies the white man in the picture as Jerron Smith. I am sure it was just an innocent mistake.
How does it math that they said that cops informing him of the law/what they were doing at gun point when its been long upheld and even celebrated that cops can legally lie to you?
For example I have an AR pistol as a car gun in a bag that goes with me or into a locking case (no one is gonna steal Honey Badger outta my car and disappoint our fair authors) in the trunk or in a desk drawer at work. Officer pulls me over in a school zone for keeping up with traffic and yadda yadda sir I’d like to inform you I am legally armed and my weapons are here, here, and here how would you like to proceed. Yes sir there are more weapons in the car they are here. First he tried to say it was an SBR and I needed to show him paperwork and I can’t conceal it, second he tried to say that I can’t have it loaded in my vehicle since its a rifle (again pistol), third he tried to say that my concealed carry license doesn’t cover AR pistols because my CCW says “license to carry a concealed handgun” and I had called it an AR pistol (the lawyer for my ccw class said the same thing then refused to answer several people in the class’ follow up questions.) So after him going back to his car to run my license and tags he comes back and says “so I called into the station and I was right about the gun (I’m sure you did officer) but I’ll let you off this time (for a supposedly illegal SBR gosh thanks officer) but he had better not see me doing this again.
Heck and depending on the judge and area can lie under oath AND can lie about evidence they have to try and affect an arrest or confession? “We’ve got your DNA/cell phone records/security camera that places you at the scene” sound familiar?
There is just no way these things should have been allowed to stand without at least a heck of a lot more strict scrutiny and really should not have stood at all and yet here we are.
Reading the article, something smells fishy. He was accused of shooting at a “friend” over an argument about a cell phone, but he is convicted of refusing to obey a civil protection order? Sounds like the cops/prosecutor couldn’t make a criminal case on reckless endangerment, but pulled out the “red flag law.” Still not the way to handle things, but there is a lot left unsaid.
If they cant make the case because it is proven it was a defensive shooting, the Red Flag will crash badly in appeals and in the legislature. It would prove that the law was used outside the intended scope and there is an injured party to prove it.
They want to take your guns temporarily without a conviction, and when you refuse, that’s a crime they can convict you on and take your guns away permanently.
This sounds like a trap. I suspect that the cops will find away to say they sent you the red flag notice and that you didn’t comply so now you are a felon, when really the notice “got lost in the mail” or some shit like that. Just to turn you into a prohibited person.
[…] Miguel published a post about a Florida man who was convicted of a felony and will be going to prison for refusing to voluntarily give up his gun to law enforcement under Florida’s red flag […]