The Second Amendment group Florida Carry has launched a wave of litigation challenging "red flag" petitions and more than a dozen police departments that have filed them, arguing that the police and sheriffs are cutting corners and violating state statute in their pursuit of gun confiscation orders.
I spoke with Florida Carry head Sean Caranna about the lawsuits a few weeks ago on Bearing Arms Cam & Company, and if you missed it you can check it out below.
There hasn't been a lot of local media coverage in the weeks since, with one notable exception. Stet News in Palm Beach County did a pretty extensive report on the 15 law enforcement agencies in the county that have been sued by Florida Carry, including the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, which has reportedly been responsible for filing more than 1,400 Extreme Risk Protection Orders over the past four years.
Ryan Gartner is suing Sheriff Rik Bradshaw, and he spoke to Stet News about the nightmarish experience he went through when he was "red flagged" back in 2022.
While a deputy said he pointed a gun at his brother during an argument over a vacuum cleaner, the 38-year-old said the facts were twisted. Once the deputy’s claims were taken before a judge, Gartner said there was no way to unravel them or set the record straight.
“I was unfairly treated by PBSO, the judge … it was the totality of the circumstances,” said Gartner, who had never been arrested or ordered to seek mental health treatment. He was cleared by psychologists who examined him at JFK North Hospital after his arrest on a charge of aggravated assault in connection with the dispute. Prosecutors dropped the charge.
After his journey through the court system, Gartner said he met others who went through similar ordeals. Some didn’t even own guns. Others simply ignored the orders and obtained other weapons after their guns were seized. The law, he said, isn’t working.
But, he said, it can have dire consequences. The risk protection petitions, classified as “mental health” cases on the clerk of courts website, are publicly available to nosy neighbors or those doing background checks on applications for jobs, leases or professional licenses.
“It has lifelong consequences,” Gartner said. “It destroys your life. It doesn’t save it.”
A sheriff's deputy filed for a temporary ERPO, which allowed for a hearing to be held without Gartner's participation. According to his complaint, the petition filed by the deputy failed to include any sworn statements by Gartner's brother and parents, even though the entire reason for the petition was Gartner allegedly pointing a gun at his brother.
Despite the lack of supporting evidence, a judge granted the temporary ERPO and allowed Gartner's guns to be seized without him ever having an opportunity to rebut the claims in the petition. Florida Carry says that the form supplied by the state mandates that law enforcement include a statement from a party with "personal knowledge" that the subject of the petition is likely hurt themselves or others, but that many departments (including the PBCSO) use their own forms or just submit a report that summarizes what witnesses allegedly told officers.
Gartner hired an attorney for the hearing on the final order (where respondents are allowed to present their side of the story), but even with that help the final order was granted and he was told to give up his guns for 10 months.
[Attorney] Roger P. Foley said the law needs to be revisited.
Too often, people become embroiled in it simply because they are having a bad day. They are upset. They say they are going to kill themselves. Someone reports it to police. Or, they are angry and threaten to kill someone even though they have no intention of doing so, he said.
“I understand if someone has a mental illness, you don’t want them to have a weapon,” Foley said. But, he said, too often others are swept up in the process. Because it is in the public record, it haunts them for decades.
Further, typically there is no help offered to those who have serious mental health problems. Their guns are seized, but a year later, they are returned. The underlying problems aren’t addressed, he said.
Foley said he would like to see a committee of judges, lawyers, mental health experts and others assembled to figure out ways to review the law and its unintended consequences.
“There’s definitely improvements that could be made,” Foley said. “Everyone should be working together to make it better.”
Honestly, the law needs to be repealed. As Stet News reports, one study found that 98 percent of temporary petitions filed between 2018 and 2020 were approved, which is a clear sign that judges are taking a "better safe than sorry" approach and rubber-stamping their approval. Who wants to be the judge that let someone keep their guns only to see them go on to commit an act of violence, after all?
The flip side of that, though, is that innocent people who pose no threat to anyone are being deprived of their constitutional rights. Even supporters of "red flag" laws claim that one suicide is prevented for every 13 to 17 petitions that are filed, which suggests that most people aren't a threat, that the law is ineffective at preventing suicide, or both.
I don't think Florida Carry's lawsuit will be able undo the state's Extreme Risk Protection Order statute, but they'll hopefully help to reduce the abuses described by Gartner and other plaintiffs. Supporters of "red flag" laws say they're all about saving lives, but Gartner's gone through the process, and when he says that it destroys lives instead, I believe him.
