In 2016, Washington became the fourth state to pass what are commonly referred to as red flag laws, which prosecutors use to enforce Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO) and seize firearms from law-abiding citizens.
Kimberly Wyatt is a King County, Washington, senior deputy prosecutor, and part of a regional unit that enforces ERPO.
Using her discretion to enforce Washington’s red flag law, Wyatt seized the firearms of a Seattle man named Chris Donnelly in October.
Donnelly had no prior history of criminal or drug issues. His firearms were all legally owned.
Donnelly’s guns were confiscated by law enforcement officers who raided his home and seized three handguns and three rifles, including an AK-47.
Wyatt’s justification for using the unprecedented ERPO laws to seize Donnelly’s firearms came from jokes he posted on social media.
In one example, Donnelly participated in posting a meme at a time when many were posting “one ticket for joker please” with photos of themselves holding weapons. The corporate media had pushed the idea that a mass shooter would attend a Joker screening and shoot an audience.
Here is Donnelly’s social media post that Wyatt used to have his guns seized:
One similar contemporaneous satirical posting was uploaded by a man holding a samurai sword.
As evidence that Donnelly was a threat, Wyatt also cited jokes that Donnelly posted, which were actually meant to lambaste the ‘incel’ posting of angry men online.
Donnelly wrote posts like, “Kill all women,” “I will shoot any woman any time for any reason,” and “Prowling the Seattle streets for women to assault. No luck so far. Hopefully my urges will be satisfied soon.”
Donnelly’s attorney Derek Smith asserted that the seizure is an infringement on Mr. Donnelly’s First and Second Amendment rights and said, “It is crystal clear to Mr. Donnelly that the state is looking over his shoulder, watching everything that he posts, and that if they don’t follow the joke, then they are going to come after him for a violation of his rights.”
Judge Averil Rothrock agreed with Donnelly’s attorney, and said the state did not meet the burden in showing the ‘threat’ as being more than a bad joke. Judge Rothrock ordered the return of the firearms.
“The statute is not written such that the court can give the benefit of the doubt to law enforcement at the expense of Mr. Donnelly,” stated Judge Rothrock.
Despite learning that Donnelly’s posts were jokes, prosecutor Kimberly Wyatt suggested to the court that Donnelly should be forced to undergo an evaluation before regaining his guns.
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, has argued that red flag laws don’t allow for due process under the law and make those accused “guilty until proven innocent.”
Last year, King County prosecutors used the red flag law 71 times, with judges overturning the ERPO order in ten of those cases.
One concern of many gun rights advocates has consistently been the selective enforcement of prosecutors as to who would have their guns seized.
While a man was raided by law enforcement for jokes about killing women, there has yet to be any reported errors against, for example, the exact opposite sentiment.
The hashtag “#killallmen” was a Twitter meme posted when an editor of HuffPost, Emily Coombs, wrote “Band together to kill all men.”
The hashtag #KillAllWhitePeople also flew around Twitter, with no reported cases of ERPO gun seizures made by law enforcement related to tweets that included the hashtag.
I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment. But this idiot’s jokes were not funny and I can see why the prosecutor took action. All rights come with responsibilities. What he did was irresponsible. I can understand why the judge gave his guns back to him, but I can also understand why the state wanted to take them away.
ummmm…..you’re a feminized sissy. simple really.
You’re a fascist then.
You’re not a supporter of the 2nd amendment or any part of the constitution – you’re a fool at best and part of the problem. A large part.
Hollering ‘fire’ in a crowded theater was considered a joke at one time.
Stupid people give guns a bad name.
Not the point. The point is the Constitution.
“One ticket for Joker please” was not enough to seize his guns, but the line was crossed with his posts like, “Kill all women,” “I will shoot any woman any time for any reason,” and “Prowling the Seattle streets for women to assault. No luck so far. Hopefully my urges will be satisfied soon.”
I agree with the prosecutor. At the very least, his mental condition should have been evaluated. Perish the thought, but if he does end up acting in accord with his latter postings, the judge should lose his job.
so panty-boy, who gets to draw the line? hhhmmmmmmmm? geez-o-petes there’s no way out with you females. i just hope you understand that if you continue down this road, there’ll be absolutely no freedom.
You’re a commie or a fascist then, your pick. This is about the Constitution, which you obviously hate.
Would you agree that if he doesn’t, the prosecutor should lose his retirement?
The communists greatest achievement was convincing people that communism no longer exists in America. After all, we won the Cold War right?
President Reagan did defeat the Soviet Union, but he did not defeat Communism.
Does anyone seriously believe the communists in America simply closed up shop and vanished just because the Berlin Wall came down?
It actually gave them the perfect cover for doubling down on their active measures here in the United States.
Below are a few few of the 45 Communist Goals to Destroy America read into the Congressional Record on the House floor in 1963 that have been accomplished and that the Intelligence Communities (IC) use in coordinating manner between agencies and the media.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S. Done… Democrat Party.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights. Done.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum (Dumb down the students). Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks. Done.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against the Constitution and the rule of law (Antifa). Done.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions. Done. They are the propaganda arm of the Communist Party. The Democrat Party exists in name only as a front.
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – Obama Care, The New Green Deal, “Climate Change” education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. [We actually need to bring this back… Joe McCarthy was right. His accusations have now been substantiated by the National Security Agency’s “Venona project,” which intercepted messages passed between Soviet intelligence agents in the United States and intelligence agents in Moscow. (Human Events, March 22, 1996, pg. 5.)]
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. [NOTE: The communists originally wanted to discredit U.S. intelligence communities, but then they realized it was much easier and smarter to infiltrate them and and take them over instead. As a result, we get communists like James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Marie Harf who got her start as a CIA analyst.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Disney and now even Chic-fil-A etc…
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Done.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose communist goals. [This particularly comes into play regarding the recent “Red Flag” laws in attempt to confiscate your guns.
Never forget how Obama weaponized these agencies. He sent the IRS after Tea Party organizations and spied on any reporters who criticized him such as James Rosen and Sharyl Attkisson.
Vladimir Lenin said that Socialism is the last step towards the goal of Communism.
Is it any wonder why the so-called “Democrats” have have now completely and openly embraced Socialism? Just look at the policies of every single “Democrat” presidential candidate. And look at the radical House so-called “squad” of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley who have basically usurped power from Nasty Pelosi. But you really have to look no further than our universities and college campuses where they pour tons of money into huge centers for “diversity”.
Well done, you might be the only sane OP’er here.
[…] Judge Returns Guns After Seattle Prosecutor Used Red Flag Laws To Seize Firearms Over Joker Meme … […]
Silly red flag laws
Charges should be brought and this “prosecutor” (persecutor, actually) should be arrested and convicted of violating these peoples’ civil rights.
I’ll bet she’s a lesbian, too.
Prosecutors are the low end of the legal systems. They are unethical and over bearing. The reason they are doing it is most of them can’t make it in private practice.
Red Flag laws have always been a very slippery slope, and they should not be allowed. Anytime someones rights are stripped without due process from a law that violates the constitution of this country is a day we no longer have a country or even real justice.
This man just like anybody else has rights, and when those rights are allowed to be stripped away without due process we are all slaves to an out of control government. These Red Flag laws are only the start of something much larger coming, soon it will be over any little thing. Soon if you protest they will come for your freedoms, lock you up, force you into some type of treatment program… Sounds a lot like what happened with Hitler…
She even looks like someone who hates the 2nd Amendment…