{"id":1159,"date":"2019-12-10T17:37:04","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T17:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2019-12-10T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T17:39:00","slug":"floridas-red-flag-laws-produce-first-guilty-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=1159","title":{"rendered":"Florida&#8217;s Red Flag Law&#8217;s Produce First &#8216;Guilty&#8217; Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>First person charged under Florida &#8216;red flag&#8217; law found guilty<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Robert Gearty | Fox News<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The first person to have his guns confiscated under\u00a0Florida\u2019s 2018\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/lawmakers-push-for-red-flag-laws-stronger-background-checks-in-wake-of-mass-shootings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cred flag\u201d law<\/a>\u00a0has been found guilty over his refusal to voluntarily surrender the weapons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Jerron Smith, 33, now faces up to five years in prison after a jury in Broward County rejected his argument that he did not fully understand the new law. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/jury-acquits-new-york-man-offered-kill-ice-agent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">jury returned the verdict<\/a>\u00a0Friday after a short trial.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, of Deerfield Beach, was the subject of a risk protection order soon after the law was enacted in response to the Parkland high school mass shooting in February 2018.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1161\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1161\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1161\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/smith_gun-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/smith_gun-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/smith_gun-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/smith_gun-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/smith_gun-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/smith_gun.jpg 1862w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1161\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jerron Smih, 31, of Deerfield Beach, Fla., had his AR-15 semiautomatic weapon confiscated, becoming the first person to have his guns seized under Florida&#8217;s 2018 &#8220;red flag&#8221; law..\u00a0(Broward County Sheriff&#8217;s Office)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Smith owned an AR-15 rifle and a .22-caliber rifle which Broward deputies seized after his arrest in March 2018 on charges of firing six shots at a vehicle being driven by his best friend, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Smith is facing trial on an attempted murder charge in connection with that\u00a0incident. He was accused of firing at his friend with a\u00a0Glock handgun that deputies also took, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s &#8220;red flag&#8221; law allows authorities to obtain a court order to confiscate weapons from people who pose a danger to themselves and others. Florida is one of 15 states with such laws.<\/p>\n<p>At the time Smith&#8217;s guns were seized, a\u00a0local TV station, citing a neighbor, reported that Smith was an Army veteran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe spent a lot of money for his weaponry,\u201d the neighbor, Lorenzo Brown, told WPLG-TV. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. You just got to live around here to know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A sentencing date has not been set.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that the jury returned a verdict after less than an hour of deliberations.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/first-person-charged-under-florida-red-flag-law-found-guilty\">https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/first-person-charged-under-florida-red-flag-law-found-guilty<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First person charged under Florida &#8216;red flag&#8217; law found guilty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}