In summer 2022, Brandon Montesi told a King County judge that he had no guns. His ex-wife, afraid for the lives of her family members and herself, said it was a lie.

Montesi’s ex-wife had sought a domestic violence protection order against him, alleging in a court petition that he arrived at her home in a rage one spring day, swinging an ax and threatening to kill her. He warned that she should “think twice before messing with him” because he has a “safe full of guns,” she recalled.

A court commissioner ordered Montesi to turn his firearms over to the King County Sheriff’s Office. Despite the court order, a judge found that about 13 of his firearms remained unaccounted for — assault rifles, hunting rifles, handguns, a shotgun and an AR-15.

Instead of surrendering the missing guns, Monte

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