guns, Law, So Much Stupid!

“Registered”

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Back in May, I noticed something odd in a Hillsborough County (FL) Sheriffs Office press release about a man arrested for shooting his girlfriend. I mean odd beyond the guy using a loaded gun for foreplay (pro-tip: don’t do that).

“involving his registered hand gun.” While most people realize that very few states have any sort of firearms registration — and Florida is not one of them — Florida takes it a little farther with FS 790.335.

(2) Prohibitions.–No state governmental agency or local government, special district, or other political subdivision or official, agent, or employee of such state or other governmental entity or any other person, public or private, shall knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms.

(4) Penalties.–

(a) Any person who, or entity that, violates a provision of this section commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

In Florida, creating a firearm registry is a third degree felony good for five years in prison. So why did HCSO claim the perp’s gun was “registered”?

It took a month and a half, with multiple emails to HCSO and the Florida Attorney General’s office, but I got an answer.

Hello Carl,
That was an error on our part. It was meant to imply that the man involved had a legally purchased gun, since media was inquiring if it was stolen or not.
We realize that there is not a gun registry. Here is a link to the updated article:

https://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/About-HCSO/Press-Releases/Releases/2019/May/19-239.aspx

Thank you,

Crystal Clark
Chief Communications Officer
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
Email: cmclark@hcso.tampa.fl.us
Office: 813-247-8094

Given that only nine (ten, sort of) states have any form of firearm registration, and Florida has a statute making the creation of a registry a felony, why in the world would it even occur to them to use “registered” to imply “lawfully owned” or simply “his”?

It will likely take another six weeks to get that answer.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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11 thoughts on ““Registered””

    1. Wishful thinking maybe. But a possibility I was considering was the “voluntary property registration to make it easier to recover stolen items” programs some departments run. Can’t remember where it was, but one department was trying to con people into giving them make, model, serial, and photos of the guns so it would be “easier to return them” if they were stolen.

  2. You’re sure it was the cops who misused “registered,” and not some meat-puppet journalist?

  3. I live in enlightened Michigan, where we must register handguns. You have 10 days to file your paperwork with the local town clown, I mean area police department. Failure to do so I would assume is cause for the electric chair, or hanging, or possibly even firing squad, if the area SWAT team needs the training time.
    But we don’t mind at all. I mean, you have to register your car after all. sarcasm off.
    If you want an even better head scratcher, look into the knife laws of Michigan. You can’t carry a knife with the INTENT to cause harm to another. They don’t say exactly how they are going to determine intent, but I suspect it is in some way related to mind reading and ouija boards.

    1. Yeh, what pigpen says. You cant lawfully give a handgun to a family member without paper to the po po.

  4. I agree with WiscoDave. Had they not the mindset the line would have been, at worst, “legally-owned firearm”, and if the writer had a modicul of sense and knowledge on the matter, “personal firearm”.

  5. I have met people in my state, which doesn’t have a registry, refer to handguns bought through a store with paperwork as ‘registered’ guns. I know it is a saying used elsewhere, but the cops should know better, especially in a state that forbids a registry!

  6. Here in Georgia, I pawned a handgun a few years back that I had bought many years ago thru a FFL dealer. The shop ran the serial number into their system and then asked if I was so and so. Imagine my surprise…

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