Granny get your gun . . . back
Susan Gaylord Buxton wants her gun back.
She could have a long wait, given how slowly the wheels of justice can grind.
Buxton, known from hither to yon as the gun-toting granny, is confused about why Arlington police seized her handgun after she shot an intruder Nov. 9. It’s not as if the circumstances under which Buxton used the Smith & Wesson .38-caliber featherweight are in question. The 66-year-old Buxton shot Christopher Lessner, 22, as he lunged at her from inside her hall closet. He’d broken into the house after fleeing from Arlington police at a traffic stop.
[snip]
Buxton, who has not been criminally charged, understands that the officers who responded to her 28-year-old granddaughter’s 911 call needed to secure the premises. She willingly handed over her gun — actually, she dropped it to the ground when directed to do so by an officer who was pointing his sidearm at her. Why police confiscated the gun is what has her baffled.
“What does it have to do with the case against Lessner?” Buxton asked. “It’s not like he’s charged with getting himself shot.”
Her gun should never have been taken other than a cursory attempt to secure the area when the police arrived.
December 14th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Police and the courts have all the power. They especially get excited about guns. I doubt she ever gets her property back.
December 14th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
Let’s have a fund-raiser to get her cash so she can buy a replacement.
I’ll throw in $20.
December 14th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
The .gov likes your stuff a whole lot more than you do. Try a couple IRS audits and you’ll find that no matter how much you like your money they like your money whole hell of a lot more.
December 15th, 2005 at 3:18 am
Word on this is that the prosecutor would like to return the gun, but the lawyer for the defendent has requested the gun be held as evidence until the trial is concluded.
However, a family member has already loaned Granny another pistol.
December 15th, 2005 at 6:25 am
So does everyone have a spare, located away from the house, to replace the one the cops will confiscate?
December 15th, 2005 at 11:55 am
I’d pitch in for a replacement, too.
This will piss some people off, but the cops did the right thing by confiscating the gun as part of the process of securing the crime scene and evidence. When she says it was self-defense, that’s a statement, not a fact. In a shooting, someone’s always going to claim self-defense – especially if the other guy’s dead and can’t contradict them. It’s up to the police to rule it a good shooting and they can’t do that without evidence. They also don’t need to make decisions on a case-by-case basis just because they shooter is a little old lady. They just always take the gun.
It sucks, but I’ve always been told that if you’re involved in a shooting that you shouldn’t count on getting your gun back any time soon, if at all.
December 15th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
I can see that, les. However, the incident occurred on Nov. 9. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to conclude that whatever evidence the police would gather from the gun has been obtained. It should be returned.
December 15th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
A month is nothing in the legal world. If there’s ever going to be a trial, that gun is a key piece of evidence. It sucks, but that’s the way it often works.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:52 am
I live in DFW, and an accaintence of mine shot a man breaking into his car.
I honestly do not agree with the way it went down, but regardless, this was almost a year ago and he does not have his gun, and all charges have been dropped. They were dropped immediatly, only charged as a “formality”.
honestly considering this is Texas, I highly doubt she needs a replacement right now, it is quite safe to assume she was flooded with offers from freinds and family, she has been in the news quite a bit.