Florida's Broward Sheriff's Office Makes First Arrest With Risk Protection Order

Florida’s state legislature passed a slew of new gun laws following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Included in the legislation were risk protection orders (RPOs). Now, a month after the legislation’s passage, the Broward Sheriff’s Office has made an arrest thanks to the new law.

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A man by the name of Jerron Smith, who was out on bond after being charged with attempted murder, was arrested after refusing to comply with an RPO.

Here’s more from Local 10 News.

According to Coleman-Wright, BSO applied for a temporary RPO against Jerron Smith, 31, on Wednesday.

A Broward County judge granted the temporary RPO on Thursday, which required Smith to surrender his firearms and ammunition to law enforcement.

Detectives and deputies from the BSO’s Civil Division and its SWAT team went to Smith’s home, in the 200 block of Southwest Third Street in Deerfield Beach, shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday to serve the order, but Smith refused to turn over his weapons and ammunition and would not allow authorities inside his home, Coleman-Wright said.

Authorities later seized the weapons and ammunition after obtaining a search warrant.

Authorities said Smith shot into a vehicle occupied by a man who went to Smith’s home to return his cellphone.

Deputies said Smith was waiting for the victim outside as he arrived and was holding a gun.

Smith threatened to shoot the victim if he didn’t return his phone, Coleman-Wright said.

Authorities said Smith fired several rounds into the victim’s vehicle as he was leaving.

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Inside the home, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office, law enforcement found “an AR-15, a.22 caliber rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a bump stock and numerous other weapon-related items from his home Thursday night.”

In a statement, Sheriff Scott Israel said, “The newly signed law is clearly proving its worth to law enforcement and the public. We are thankful to have this valuable tool at our disposal to help keep deadly weapons out of the hands of individuals who demonstrate an obvious threat to themselves or others.”

Now, if only the sheriff took this same initiative to prevent the Parkland shooting.

Here at Bearing Arms, we have covered extreme risk protection orders and gun violence restraining orders quite a bit. While many Second Amendment supporters are wary of these types of orders, when used legally–meaning the person in question is still given due process–they can be useful tools to prevent criminals from harming others. These orders do have the potential to keep the general public safe.

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While laws like this have only passed at the state level, Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Jack Reed (D-RI) have introduced the Extreme Risk Protection Order and Violence Prevention Act at the federal level.

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