Who Guards the Guards: Police Confiscated Guns – Didn’t Return Them
WND is reporting that a police officers in two California cities have confiscated firearms and then failed to return them – even after the suspects were cleared. An anti-gun types think only the police should have access to guns. The story noted:
A pair of California cities and the state’s Department of Justice are facing a federal lawsuit today because, plaintiffs claim, the police confiscated firearms during investigations but now refuse to return them – even after the subjects of the inquiries were cleared of any wrongdoing.
The story added:
(Douglas) Churchill’s firearms were confiscated by the San Francisco Police Department in January 2011 as part of an investigation, but the district attorney dismissed charges less than a month later. Nonetheless, police refuse to return seven of Churchill’s weapons – including a Remington .22-caliber rifle and a Winchester 20-guage shotgun, among others.
Police, court documents suggest, are relying on a letter from the California Department of Justice instructing the police not to return firearms unless the alleged owners can present “proof of ownership,” though the same letter admits the state may have no official records for “long guns” like Churchill’s Remington.
In Churchill’s case, however, police officers presented him with a receipt for the firearms they confiscated. Churchill’s attorneys argue that’s good enough and the police need to return the weapons they took.
This is highly disturbing because it could allow the police to seize guns and then demand that “proof of ownership.” We know what this is – backdoor gun control.
NJ Buyback Gets “Gun Off Streets”
This week NorthJersey.com noted a “successful” gun buyback. It reported:
The Passaic County Sheriff’s Office spent more than $20,000 buying back 282 guns from residents in Paterson in an effort to rid the city’s most dangerous streets of firearms, officials said Tuesday.
First, is there any evidence these guns were the “city’s most dangerous” – more likely these were in closets and under beds. But wouldn’t $20,000 have been better spent on paying for tips and programs to help the community instead?
Who Guards the Guards: NYPD Guards Itself
There is the old Latin phrase Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This translates to “Who will guard the guards themselves?” And now it seems in New York City the police will indeed police themselves. The New York Post reported this week:
Instead of hitting the streets, cops are being paid to patrol an NYPD locker room.
Police Department brass recently assigned an around-the-clock security detail to the locker room of the Ninth Precinct station house in the East Village, where at least four 9mm handguns, an iPad and even bulletproof vests have been stolen since February, sources told The Post.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, must find this as ironic as we do.
Utter Silly Con Debate on Guns
Last week the York Daily Record offered a pro/con debate on whether the Second Amendment should be repealed and how did the author of the who stated “Yes – guns are too costly for society” try to make his case:
There are 788,258 words in a standard King James Bible. The word “gun” isn’t one of them.
The words TV, Internet, airplane, automobile, and lawnmower aren’t in there either. But no one is opposed of someone mowing the lawn or flying.
He adds:
America today has something else it didn’t have in 1787 – a million law enforcement officers whose job it is to protect the public and enforce the rule of law. They do an exemplary job and every single one of us is safer because of their efforts. Gun owners might feel safer packing their own heat, but data gleaned from the FBI’s 2010 statistics on firearm-related deaths suggests that gun owners are just as likely to die from firearms as their unarmed brethren, which tells me that the “gun for protection” argument doesn’t hold much water.
After 225 years, the Second Amendment has clearly outlived its original purpose. What America needs today is something different. What I’m talking about is a new Constitutional Amendment – one that values a communities’ right to safety over the right of individuals to unfettered ownership of instruments of death. That end can only be accomplished by allowing all levels of government the power to regulate gun ownership in the same way we regulate our right to drive vehicles or conduct other hazardous activities.
So basically another rallying cry for a police state, one where we can only hope criminals don’t get their hands on guns.
Who Guards the Guards: Gun Range Inspector Violated Laws
The State Journal-Register noted this week:
Robert Schmalholz has agreed to resign from his job as an inspector with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Carol Stream police arrested Schmalholz in 2009 and took his guns. He didn’t tell his department about the arrest or allegations, which were later dropped.
Schmalholz kept working without carrying a gun as required for his job. He also let his firearm-owners ID card expire but carried his gun after police returned it.
On the one hand, it is disturbing that he continued to carry a gun without the required permit or ID card, but if the charges were dropped why is this an issue? Clearly Schmalholz made a mistake, and it is ominous that law enforcement could so callously break the law, however this also is of concern that someone could lose their Second Amendment rights without due process.
Who Guards the Guards: NYPD Guns Stolen
Last Week The New York Daily News offered a story that anyone who believes that only the police should have guns, should read. It noted:
Four 9mm guns have vanished from police officers’ lockers at the East Village station house — brazen thefts committed right under the noses of Internal Affairs Bureau investigators.
In this case criminals wanting firearms didn’t bother to cross the Hudson River, had to go and show hundreds of miles away or find some other source of illegal firearms. Instead they stole the police. Doesn’t this show the lengths that criminals will go to acquire guns? In other words, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns should realize that the problem the criminal, not the gun.
Guns to be Destroyed – What About History?
Not about hunting is how Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood described the 249 firearms that will destroyed. NBC Philadelphia reported:
It looked like something out of a gun show Thursday morning at the Upper Darby Police headquarters. Police placed 249 seized guns that were used in either crimes or suicides on display. The display featured all of the weapons the department had seized since 2003.
“It represents how easy it is to get a gun in America today,” said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood. “My concern is when guns are used for violence, when guns are used for robberies, when guns are used for suicides. This is not about anti-hunter. This is about pro-public safety.”
Is it fair to compare this to a gun show? And again we’d like to note that the Second Amendment isn’t about “hunting.” This was a snide comment from Chitwood and a sad example of reporting. Finally, what about the potential historical value of some of the firearms in question?
CCRKBA TO BLOOMBERG: ‘BEFORE YOU DISARM AMERICA, DISARM YOUR BAD COPS’
CCRKBA:
“Instead of disarming law-abiding American citizens,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “perhaps Mayor Bloomberg should keep guns out of the hands of some cops on his public payroll.” Read more
Who Guards the Guards: Sheriff Sold Stolen Guns
Yet another sad example was reported this week of how illegal guns can be easily sold to criminals by corrupt law enforcement. KFVS12.com reported, “Sheriff pleads guilty to selling stolen guns.” The piece noted:
The United States Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that the former sheriff of Carter County, Tommy Lee Adams, pleaded guilty to possession and selling of guns.
Adams pleaded guilty to two felony counts of possession of stolen guns, one felony county [sic] of sale of a stolen gun and one felony county [sic] of being a drug user in possession of a gun.
In this case it seems Adams also knew he was selling firearms to a convicted felon. So anyone who says that only the police should have guns should heed this story of Adams.
More Cheerleader Style Reporting Over Buyback
This past weekend, Live5 News couldn’t rave enough about the “North Charleston gun buyback a great success,” which noted:
The North Charleston Police Department says they’ve collected 135 weapons off the streets Saturday during their annual buyback program in North Charleston.
As with ALL buybacks there is absolutely no proof that any of these 135 firearms – note the editors used the word “weapons” instead – were ever actually on the streets. The story also closed with this fact:
All weapons collected will be processed by the police department before they are destroyed.
Again, we see this as another potential tragedy that could see the destruction of historical items of great value!
