Seattle Police Demanding Family Members Surrender Their Firearms

Seattle Police are demanding that family members of a teenager who posted a Snapchat image of another Garfield student’s head at the barrel of a cartoon gun, surrender their real guns to the police.  The action was taken by the new Regional Firearms Enforcement Unit that strives to prevent gun crimes, typically those involving domestic violence or extreme risk protection orders.

A King County judge issued a civil “weapons surrender” order requiring “any household members who own or possess any firearms” to turn their guns over to police for safekeeping.

That led to a first-of-its-kind legal case in King County, where authorities attempted to remove all firearms from the household where the 17-year-old accused student lives.

The teen’s attorney argued that the Snapchat post and the other comments were in jest, and said the students who heard them did not feel threatened.

The father in the Snapchat case hired an attorney to argue that the weapons surrender order violated his 2nd Amendment rights. In a legal brief the father's attorney said the man’s son was the party facing the criminal harassment charge, and that “the Court has no statutory authority to order a nonparty to surrender weapons.”

After hearing arguments, Judge Susan Amini agreed.

“The court has no jurisdiction to tell him what to do,” the judge said of the father’s refusal to voluntarily hand over his guns.

The order required Seattle police to return the father’s firearms, although the man’s attorney said he has always been willing to keep them locked up at a location separate from his residence.

King County juvenile court prosecutors dropped the harassment charge against the 17-year-old who made the Snapchat post.   (King 5 News, July 19, 2018)
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This is another example of government overreach and police abuse of authority. The government has no more right to demand that someone surrender their firearms because he/she "might" use them in a crime than it does to demand that you surrender your car because you "might" drink and drive.

Was the 17-year old's Snapchat post inappropriate - absolutely. Was it a threat, probably not since according to the students who received the Snapchat, they did not feel threatened, and King County prosecutors dropped the harassment charges against the teenager.