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I will paste my research so far.

Under what circumstances may person A make use of Massachusetts’ red flag law against person B without police cooperation, and what are the consequences of that? Certainly they want to help and cooperate?

How can I compel the state police to act on a red flag confiscation?

THIS: The next step is an ERPO as a result of sharing his prescriptions? Is this the correct order? Can I show the officer a section of the law that applies here? Which section?

He brags to everyone about the specific quantity of cannabis grown. Each time he makes a sale over $1000. His weapons including a sawed off shotgun in the same house as 200 oz. His distribution of Oxycontin and Ativan to 80yo demented “patients”. This is all public, documented, written, photographed, and submitted to elder care. He has a history of doing this.

Red flag laws in MA: 50/50 chance that they are a threat or broke a law. Preponderance of evidence. Anonymous witness. Not beyond a reasonable doubt it is not needed. 11oz of cannabis is illegal. More likely than not is the standard of evidence to search and confiscate a weapon. They don’t reject a red flag accusation because of the worst case outcome risk. Only one side is heard before the action is taken. Preponderance of evidence is a low standard.

Please correct me if I’m wrong. Thanks in advance for your help! Mark

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    The question is somewhat rambling and I suspect this caused the downvotes. Yet, it is easily salvageable ("Under what circumstances may person A make use of Massachusetts’ red flag law against person B without police cooperation, and what are the consequences of that?"). (I know next to nothing about Massachusetts law or Second Amendment litigation and hence will not answer.)
    – KFK
    Commented Dec 29, 2022 at 15:45
  • Every officer I talked to said proof is needed to get a warrant to search for an illegal weapon. But there is proof of a crime already. Submitted to elder care group.
    – Mark Robin
    Commented Dec 29, 2022 at 18:51
  • @MarkRobin What did you say when you showed them the proof you have?
    – Comic Sans Seraphim
    Commented Dec 29, 2022 at 21:13
  • It seems they are not familiar with red flag laws. I submitted my evidence to elder care to address that issue. It seems that absolute proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard needed for a search warrant. It seems he can threaten harm and break laws. How can I prove he has a sawed off shotgun? Take a picture? There are many witnesses.
    – Mark Robin
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 1:51

1 Answer 1

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As you can read here, "if the police witness or have probable cause to believe that the defendant violated a restraining order, they are required to arrest the defendant". Given the presumption that the court has in fact issued an ERPO, then the police will act if they have probable cause to believe that the person e.g. still has a gun. If they don't know that the person has a gun, they won't do anything.

It is entirely possible that you are thinking of some other law, or that no such order has been issued by the court (police require a court order, not just your say-so).

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  • There has been no order yet resulting from the elder care referral. He is a hunter he carries a gun every day. He will hide the illegal weapons when the police come to investigate the elder care abuse. He will not let them in to search.
    – Mark Robin
    Commented Dec 29, 2022 at 19:31
  • @MarkRobin If they have a search warrant, it doesn't matter if he will let them in - they'll be coming in anyway.
    – nick012000
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 21:44
  • Elder care does not use search warrants unless there is evidence of a crime then police will be involved.
    – Mark Robin
    Commented Dec 31, 2022 at 19:50

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