One of the biggest objections gun owners have had against the proliferation of poorly crafted “red flag” confiscations laws is their potential for abuse by upset ex spouses, difficult neighbors, or anyone with whom a gun owner may find him or herself in a dispute.

A good illustration of the danger for this kind of abuse took place in a New York State courtroom this week where a judge has issued a final “temporary extreme risk protection order” against the owner of a Rome, New York liquor store and his son.

The confiscation order has resulted in the two men losing their 80 firearms for one year.

The confiscation order was issued after Dominick Lorenzoni posted a video taken by his daughter to Facebook. The video shows his daughter Kayla being fired by liquor store owner Michael DeShane and a verbal confrontation that took place with Michael’s son and store manager, Jason DeShane.

As the Democrat & Chronicle reports . . .

Rome police seized more than 80 firearms after the video was posted Feb. 14 by Dominick Lorenzoni, who said it was taken by his daughter Kayla while she spoke to her former boss, Michael Deshane, about an incident with his son the day before. The younger Deshane walks in toward the end of the video, tells the employee to leave and launches into a profane rant, which includes a threat to “permanently end s— here” and what sounds like a mumbled death threat.

Here is the NSFW video the woman’s father posted to Facebook. The son comes into view and begins berating the woman at the 9:00 mark.

The elder DeShane was clearly calm and non-threatening during the exchange which took place in November of 2019. But in a subsequent police investigation, evidence of a dispute between father and son was discovered by police.

The video wasn’t the only issue raised in court. Rome police argued the order should be granted for Michael DeShane (the father) also because of a statement given by Jason DeShane in a November police report. Officer Alexis Perry said she met with Jason DeShane around 9 p.m. on Nov. 30. She said they spoke for about an hour about a domestic dispute with his father a couple days prior. According to the statement, which was read in court by MacRae, Michael DeShane told his son, “I’ll f—ing kill you.”

When police were questioned under oath as to why they didn’t arrest the elder DeShane regarding the threat, Officer Perry testified that “We didn’t have reasonable cause.”

Jason DeShane apparently also mentioned that his father was either holding a pistol at the time of the exchange or moved it on his desk. Exactly what happened isn’t clear.

Lorenzoni posted the video to Facebook on February 14. The “red flag” order was then issued and police confiscated the 80 firearms on February 19. Police obviously didn’t feel the need to seek a confiscation order when they investigated. It seems to have been the video that caused them to act.

Jason DeShane lived with his father and disputed some of the information in the police report.

The judge concluded even if Jason DeShane disputed that portion of the testimony, he did not deny sections indicating his father created a threat of violence. “DeShane’s testimony and the supporting affidavit is that he feared for his life and he thought his father was going to kill him at a time when his father had a pistol in his possession,” MacCrae said. (Michael DeShane’s attorney Nicholas) Passalacqua said they will appeal the decision. “I’m a firm believer that they looked and said, ‘Well, he lives with dad, how do we bring dad in on this?’” he said. “And they happen to get lucky when they search and see that he was an involved individual in that domestic incident report.”

The order confirming the gun confiscation was issued in New York Supreme Court on Wednesday. Yesterday, the elder DeShane was found dead in his home.

Deputies said the death has been ruled “non-suspicious” and no one has been taken into custody.

An autopsy is pending.

Did any or all of what has been reported justify the gun confiscation order being issued against either the father or the son? You make the call.