Gun Registration
Remember, they tell us it’s not a precursor to confiscation:
A heavy afternoon rain blurs the sky as three black sport utility vehicles pull up across from a one-story stucco house on Pinole Valley Road.
The man inside just turned 60 and recently was placed under a psychiatric hold as a suicide risk, says one of the five state agents. Records show he owns 15 guns, including two assault weapons. Under state law, he must give them up for five years. He hasn’t.
“This guy could have a pure disdain for police,” Special Agent Supervisor John Marsh says. “It’s almost like the boy with the CrackerJack box. When we get to the door, we never know what surprise is going to be inside.”
What they find, after he lets them in, are handguns, rifles and shotguns strewn about several rooms, others locked away in a garage gun safe. There are 58 weapons in all, many of them loaded, Marsh says. The man is agitated, but the agents settle him down. An hour later, they shuttle the firearms to their vehicles, barrels up, then drive off.
“Pretty typical,” Ignatius Chinn, a veteran firearms agent, says.
Next stop: the home of a Richmond man. “He likes to fight, likes to hit his wife, likes to show off his guns,” says one agent as he briefs the others.
Such seizures from “armed and prohibited” gun owners are growing more common across the state, officials say, after the launch last year of a new state computer system that links gun ownership records with a database of people who are banned from keeping them.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Notice who their “researcher” is? The virulent anti-gunner Wintemute, who thinks anecdotes and personal bias’s = “data”
March 4th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Hrm, suicide watch with loaded guns everywhere. What a great assessment by the mental health system – it seems he wasn’t that serious about it because he waited until the .gov had time to waltz its ass over there. Yea, I’d probably be agitated too if many cops came searching through my house.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:17 am
All it takes is to gently change the definition of “prohibited” over the course of a few years and voila! A disarmed public.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am
What bothers me most about all that is the ease with which Person A can bypass Person B’s due process and get a restraining order against Person B, thus removing their right to self-defense. Doesn’t even take cause, probable or otherwise – just Person A with a sob story to tell a judge inclined to take their word at face value.
“Yessir judge, that guy right there’s a baaaaaad man, and I want a restraining order against him so he can’t keep his gun.”
March 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
This is the main reason I was so reticent to apply for a CCW.
I will NOT register, ever. And if they come for mine…
Things will get interesting.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Now you’ve gone and done it, Kevin. You are now on the “Things will get intersting list.”
March 4th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Did I read that last part right? Gun Owners of California is ok with this? I might not have a problem with something like this if firearms prohibitions were limited to people who have been convicted of truly violent crimes… and even then I’m not sure I approve of the police state tactics. So being in the registration database is probable cause to get a warrant for the cops to turn your house over looking for it? Screw that. Welcome to Brady State Number One… sign over your second and fourth amendment rights at the dotted line.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
IMO the GOC is a self-interest lobby that hasn’t done a lot for CA gun owners.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Jim, you think a bunch of us aren’t already on the list?
March 4th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
IMO the GOC is a self-interest lobby that hasn’t done a lot for CA gun owners.
Pretty clearly. I doubt anyone would call me a no-compromise, charge the machine gun nest type of activist, but even I have a hard time stomaching what’s going on here. Hell, it’s just generally creepy. Would people tolerate, say, if liquor sales in California had to be logged with the state, and the state then cross references college records to go pay visits to anyone who showed up in the log and also showed up as being an under 21 college student? That would creep most people out, I think. Yet if it’s gun owners, it’s ok, right?
March 4th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Has GOC ever done anything for California gun owners? I have to wonder if there is a reason why they quoted them rather than CRPA.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:24 am
Now, now, we should all be pragmatic about this. Are we to abandon pragmatism for rights or principles? Oh surelyl, I haven’t read that.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Jimbob, I’m already on a list.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:54 am
If you’ve bought a handgun in CA under the current laws, not only are you on a list, but it IS registered TO YOU.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Thankfully I don’t live in the People’s Democratic Republic of Californistan, nor will I.
Ever.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Me, neither, I hope. If I do, my ace in the hole is that some of my guns are not, and need not be, registered there. If you’re wondering how to do that, you probably can’t. I only can myself because I owned the guns first, then moved to Cali before they passed the law requiring new residents to register their guns (while grandfathering in the old ones), and then got the hell out.