Several civil protection orders allow a person to petition a court seeking protection from harmful or threatening behavior. Protection orders are available for individuals subjected to domestic violence, sexual assault, staking, harassment, and vulnerable adult abuse. A court may grant broad relief to protect the petitioner, including entering relief to restrain a person from having contact with or coming within a specified distance of certain locations. Courts may also issue no-contact orders in relation to criminal domestic violence charges.
A person who is subject to a domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, vulnerable adult, or anti-harassment protection order may be required to surrender their firearms, dangerous weapons, and concealed pistol license (CPL) if the person has used or threatened to use a firearm in the commission of a felony or is otherwise disqualified from possessing a firearm.
Courts are required to order the surrender of firearms, dangerous weapons, and any CPL when entering certain qualifying orders involving intimate partners. An order to surrender weapons is effective immediately upon service by a law enforcement officer, and the officer must take possession of all firearms, weapons, and any concealed pistol license belonging to the restrained person that are surrendered, in plain sight, or discovered pursuant to a lawful search.
Courts may also issue extreme risk protection orders (ERPO) which allow a court to prohibit a person from possessing, purchasing, accessing, or receiving a firearm if the person poses a significant risk of harm to themselves or others by having access to firearms.
Pretrial No-Contact Orders. The court's authority to prohibit a person charged with or arrested for a crime involving domestic violence from having any contact with the victim includes prohibiting the person charged or arrested from the following:
In issuing the order, the court must verify that the statutory duties of peace officers when responding to domestic violence calls have been satisfied. If the information provided to the court indicates there may be a risk of harm if the defendant has access to firearms or dangerous weapons, the court must verify that peace officers have temporarily removed and secured all firearms, dangerous weapons, and any CPL. The court must then determine whether an order to surrender and prohibit weapons, or an ERPO should be issued.
At arraignment, the court must attempt to determine whether there are any other active orders restraining the defendant, and, to the extent the court is aware, advise the defendant of the ongoing requirements of those orders.
Emergency No-contact Orders. A peace officer may request an emergency no-contact order, and an order to surrender and prohibit weapons or ERPO on behalf of and with the consent of the victim of an alleged act involving domestic violence. If the victim is incapacitated because of the alleged act of domestic violence, the officer may request the emergency order on their behalf. The request may be made in person, by telephone, or by electronic means.
If the court finds probable cause to believe the victim is in imminent danger of domestic violence based on the allegations, the court must grant the emergency no-contact order and may issue an order to surrender and prohibit weapons or an ERPO as required by law.
In issuing an emergency no-contact order, if the court issues an order to surrender and prohibit weapons or an ERPO, and has not verified that peace officers have temporarily removed and secured all firearms, dangerous weapons, and any CPL, all orders issued by the court must be personally served by a peace officer, and the peace officer must take possession of all firearms, dangerous weapons, and any concealed pistol license belonging to the respondent that are surrendered, in pain sight, or discovered pursuant to a lawful search.
If the court does not issue an order to surrender and prohibit weapons or an ERPO, or has verified all firearms, dangerous weapons, and any concealed pistol license have been temporarily removed by law enforcement, service of the court's orders may be effected electronically. Any order issued electronically must also be issued in writing as soon as possible.
PRO: This bill ensures that someone charged with domestic violence does not possess guns at any point after the incident. A defendant at the arraignment can simply swear they do not possess any guns and there is no check by police of the residence to see if that is true. There have been some changes in the last few years so guns are removed from the home at the point of incident more often. There is still work to be done to ensure that happens. This bill requires that a judge verify that the removal happened. It allows, at the request of a victim, the police call a judge immediately at the scene of a crime to get a no-contact order, an order to surrender weapons, and a search warrant if necessary to ensure no weapons are left at the scene. This has been requested by law enforcement. This bill clarifies that police have the ability to get these emergency no-contact orders. In Washington, nearly 60 percent of all domestic violence homicides are committed with firearms. Between 2020 and 2022, 94 people in Washington were killed with firearms in intimate partner violence related deaths. Focus on implementation and enforcement is critical. Laws prohibiting firearms for abusers are not effective without clear, specific procedures and mechanisms for accountability.