Ethan Jamieson, who played a District 4 tribute in the 2012 film The Hunger Games, was charged in North Carolina this spring over a shooting in which a gun was allegedly fired toward an occupied vehicle. Weeks later, he was arrested again, this time for violating a protective order by possessing a firearm. He is presumed innocent and the cases are pending. The second arrest is the one worth a closer look, because the firearm-plus-protective-order trap catches people who never see it coming.
This is general legal commentary on publicly reported, unresolved cases. Mr. Jamieson is presumed innocent and has not been convicted, this is not legal advice, and The Safir Lawyer does not represent anyone in this matter.
A protective order takes your guns while it is in effect
When a Florida court enters an domestic violence injunction, the person it is entered against is ordered to surrender all firearms and ammunition for as long as the injunction lasts and is barred from possessing any. This is not optional and it is not a suggestion. The guns have to go, right away. Other orders, like repeat, dating, sexual violence, or stalking injunctions, can carry firearm conditions too, but the automatic surrender and the standalone possession crime below are clearest with a domestic violence injunction.
Possessing one anyway is a separate crime
Under Florida Statute 790.233, having a firearm or ammunition while you are subject to a domestic violence injunction is itself a crime, a first-degree misdemeanor, and federal law layers its own ban on top. So a person can pick up a brand new charge purely for possession, no matter what happens with the case that led to the injunction. That is a fresh weapons charge stacked on everything else.
Violating the injunction is its own charge too
Beyond the firearm itself, breaking any term of an injunction, contact, proximity, or possession, is a criminal violation of an injunction in Florida, prosecuted on its own track and apart from whatever started it. People often treat an injunction as a civil formality. The criminal exposure for violating it is very real.
Once a gun is involved, the math changes
The underlying allegation, firing toward an occupied car, maps in Florida to charges like shooting into an occupied vehicle and aggravated assault with a firearm. The moment a firearm is used in a qualifying felony, the 10-20-Life law brings mandatory minimum prison time into the case, and discharging a firearm carries its own serious penalties. A gun does not just add a charge. It changes the sentence.
What this means in Florida
If an injunction is entered against you, surrender every firearm and round of ammunition, completely and immediately, because possession alone is a crime that hands the State an easy case. And understand that once a firearm is part of any violent charge, the sentencing exposure can jump well past what the underlying conduct alone would suggest.
Charged with a DUI in the Tampa Bay area?
If an injunction has been entered against you, the firearm rules are strict and the penalties for getting them wrong are real. Let’s make sure you are protected.
About the author
Rory Safir is one of a handful of ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientists in Florida, an NHTSA qualified field sobriety instructor, and a former Assistant Public Defender in Tampa. He trained on the same gas chromatography instruments the State labs use, which is why he reads breath and blood evidence the way an analyst does.
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Common Questions
Can you own a gun while under a protective order in Florida?
No. A Florida domestic violence injunction requires surrendering all firearms and ammunition for as long as it is in effect, and possessing them is a crime under Statute 790.233. Other protective orders can carry firearm conditions as well.
What happens if you violate an injunction in Florida?
Violating any term of an injunction, including contact, proximity, or firearm possession, is a separate criminal charge, prosecuted apart from the case that led to the injunction.
What is 10-20-Life?
It is Florida's firearm sentencing law, which adds mandatory minimum prison terms when a gun is possessed, discharged, or used in certain felonies.
Is shooting at a vehicle a serious charge in Florida?
Yes. Shooting into an occupied vehicle and aggravated assault with a firearm are serious felonies, and the use of a firearm triggers mandatory minimum sentencing.