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  • 2018-03-07 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Seattle Police Confiscate a Man's Guns Without a Warrant? (en)
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  • In March 2018, various right-wing blogs seized on a police encounter in Seattle to paint a state gun safety law as an example of Nazi-Style gun confiscations. The blog posts typically used language intended to evoke strong emotions: On 2 March 2018, officers seized a 31-year-old man's handgun while serving him with an extreme risk protection order (often shortened to ERPO) requiring him to do so. Police said in a statement that the unidentified man had been the subject of multiple calls concerning his behavior.Before seizing his handgun, they said, the suspect had surrendered a shotgun to them in May 2017, after being served with an anti-harassment order. Police said he acknowledged he was experiencing 'stress' and did not want it around. A spokesperson said: However, many of these blogs misrepresented the statement, claiming that no warrants and no arrests were involved and ignoring the man's failure to appear in court to address the protection order: A police spokesperson confirmed to us via email that the unidentified man had been reported for harassing people at a restaurant near his home, saying: According to state law: According to the department spokesperson, the suspect -- who lives directly above the restaurant -- stood on a sidewalk in front of the business yelling obscenities and accusing them of 'talking to him through the floor.' He later called officers back to the scene, saying that he could hear taunting and voices emanating from the restaurant. While meeting with police, they said, he said that he wanted a restaurant employee arrested or shot. He was detained and later taken to receive medical services. Sergeant Eric Pisconski, who heads the unit responsible for carrying out protection order-related seizures, said of the case: The involuntary gun seizure was reportedly the first of its kind, though not the first seizure overall, to be done under the auspices of the risk order, which was created by Initiative 1491, a Washington state ballot measure that was approved by voters on 8 November 2016 and also called a red flag law. The law allows for orders to be filed against a firearm owner by police or family members if they feel that the firearm owner poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to self or others by having in his or her custody or control, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm. The law, which went into effect in 2017, states that confiscations conducted as a result of the orders may last a year. Washington is one of five states with red flag laws. Around 24 other states — including Florida, where a mass shooting attack in February 2018 reignited the gun safety debate throughout the United States — are reportedly considering passing similar legislation. However, the American Civil Liberties Union has opposed such laws; its Rhode Island chapter said in an analysis released on 2 March 2018: (en)
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