Take the new gun law in Florida and couple it with the Baker Act (Florida Mental Health Act) and you’ll end up with people disarmed because of the idea that they may pose a danger to themselves or others – sounds like the thought police at work. - FUA
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A Broward County judge on Friday issued what is thought to be Florida's first order temporarily removing guns from a person under Florida's new gun-control laws.
Four firearms and 267 rounds of ammunition were ordered removed from a 56-year-old Lighthouse Point man who experts determined was a potential risk to himself or others.
The guns and ammunition have been temporarily removed from the man under the state's new "risk protection" law, which is also sometimes called "red flag" legislation, Lighthouse Point City Attorney Michael Cirullo confirmed.
Although the man was also taken to a hospital for involuntary psychiatric treatment under the state's Baker Act, the civil ruling removing his access to guns and ammunition was granted under the new legislation, which permits removal of guns from people who have not been committed but are deemed a potential risk to themselves or others, according to the order signed by Broward's Chief Judge Jack Tuter.
"We know it's the first case of its kind in Broward County and we think it's the first one in Florida, under the new law," Cirullo said. "Up until the introduction of this law last week, there was no process for us to protect the public in this kind of situation."
Before now, officials who attempted to remove guns from a person they thought was a danger could be removed from office and fined up to $5,000, he said.
Lighthouse Point police made the request on March 14, one week after they were called to his apartment building to conduct a welfare check on the man, who they said was behaving strangely. Authorities said it was the latest in a series of encounters law enforcement had with the man, though he has no history of arrests in Florida.
Police were called after the man turned off the main electrical breakers to the apartment building, court records show.
The man told officers he "was being targeted and burglarized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a neighbor who lives in (his) building," the judge wrote in his order. "(He) could not describe the neighbor but stated that the neighbor 'shape shift, he can change heights and I'm not sure where he comes from' and 'to be honest, he looks like Osama Bin Laden.'"
He also told officers that he had to turn off the electrical breakers because "they are electrocuting me through my legs."
Officers said they saw weapons in his home after they were called to check on his welfare. They also found evidence he had "a voluminous amount of notes containing numerous references to former President Barack Obama, that he was killed in the 1980s but came back and now murders children to place their spirits into (the man's) head, is a member of (al-Qaida), and is (the man's) enemy," the judge wrote in his order.
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