Helen H. Richardson / The Denver Post
One day after Colorado’s red-flag law came into effect, a Denver judge temporarily granted a police officer’s request to keep a suicidal man’s confiscated guns under the new firearm seizure law.
Denver police filed the petition for the temporary extreme risk protection order Jan. 2 in Denver Probate Court for a man suspected of beating his wife and who made suicidal statements when contacted by officers, according to a copy of the petition obtained by The Denver Post.
The petition likely is the first filed under the state’s red-flag law, which allows family members and law enforcement to ask that a person’s guns be removed if they present a danger to themselves or others. The law, passed in the 2019 legislative session, has prompted controversy across the state, including sparking some sheriffs to say they won’t enforce the law because it violates people’s constitutional right to bear arms.
“This is the first one to my knowledge, but there are possibly others,” said Jon Sarché, spokesman for the Colorado Judicial Department.
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