“The law gives us a vehicle to cause the person to surrender their weapons, to have a time out, if you will,” Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Michael Moore told a local NPR affiliate. “It allows further examination of the person’s mental state.”
“It’s a short duration and it allows for due process,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for mental health professionals to provide an analysis of a person’s mental state.”
Unfortunately, experience shows that once a firearm is confiscated, it is almost impossible to have it returned, in spite of the time limit specified in the law. Either the family members will request the time limit be extended, or the confiscating agency will conjure up regulations and bureaucratic hoops that must be followed in order to have the property returned to the owner. Also troubling is the “no prior announcement” proviso, since the question then becomes one of how the weapon will be discovered and confiscated in the first place. The image of Gestapo officers pounding on the door in the middle of the night and rampaging through the house to find the offending weapon comes easily to mind.
The other issue is one of family dynamics. How many angry spouses or children, upset over who knows what slight, or vindictive ex-spouses looking to inconvenience and embarrass the gun owner, will use the law to do just that. One wonders if this is a good use of our police officer’s time to make surprise visits to homes in order to confiscate weapons on the basis of perhaps a trivial or unsubstantiated claim. The potential for abuse is overwhelming.
The law was instituted in the wake of a mentally unstable college student who killed six people near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara. It may be that it was passed by well-meaning legislators hoping to prevent a similar incident in the future. But the law must be measured by comparing intent verses the tremendous overreach and damage to citizens who have committed no breach.
This is typical of almost all anti-gun laws, and it highlights the tendency of anti-gun activists who are more than willing to deny gun owners their constitutional right to bear arms without relentless and illegal harassment. Expect more of the same, even as the Supreme Court periodically rules against the gun-grabbers.
Source: washingtontimes.com
Earlier this week in Illinois we saw legislation come out that seems to be a beta test for full confiscation. And, in the worst affront to our Constitution, saw bill H.R. 4269 introduced by Democrat lawmakers in Congress, which would completely undo the Second Amendment.
Without a doubt gun control is in full swing. Just like Nazi Germany, the Marxists are maneuvering to completely disarm the populace. Of course, Americans have known freedom like nobody else in history and are not simply going to surrender to this impending despotism. The country is headed for civil war unless this is turned around.
bs the guy in the white house needs congress to show this president the constitution, then read it to him, it seems he does not even know it exists???
If that is so I won’t fire a warning shot.
After Katrina the New Orleans police targeted known gun owners in their homes. The police showed up and confiscated their guns without due process. The Gun owners didn’t put up a fight. A decade later they are still waiting for the government to return their property.
The only way that dub SOB can pull this off is if he declares martial law and sends in his U.N. Army to try to do his dirty work
Agree with Phillip Hankey . They do post some pretty outrageous posts. They probably work for the Muslim sleeper in the white house, so they can stir up the people so he can get scared and then declare marshal law.
This happens and something happens I’m going to make sure that War begins. Burn mosques and go after Obama’s buddies.