no criminal charges have been filed
In Oregon, a man gets fired from his job at the DOT. He’s disgruntled. He goes out and buys some guns. So, the police send a SWAT Team to raid his house since he was reportedly disgruntled and because he bought guns. They took him into protective custody. People are a bit alarmed at the police tactics.
Seems they knew he bought guns from the background checks. He did not purchase multiple handguns in a week which makes me wonder how the police got this info.
On one had, could have diffused a violent situation. Maybe. On the other, that seems constitutionally suspect.
Update: your answer:
The answer is easy. Oregon is a Point-Of-Contact state for the NICS system, which means Oregon, like Pennsylvania and many other states, has its own system. While funding restrictions prevent the feds from storing information related to background checks, there is no such restriction on the state point-of-contact.
Though shootin’ buddy and Occam’s Razor suggest his wife called.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Ben Franklin
March 10th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
My guess: girlfriend called cops.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Does Oregon go through NICS or does it have its own state-level system like TN?
March 10th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Don’t worry folks, the machine told me he was about to commit a crime. The precog division is totally accurate, believe me. Just like e-meters.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Could be the girlfriend/wife. But I know in PA, if the cops were watching you, they could tell pretty quickly if you had bought a gun.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
TN’s TICS system is legally prohibited from storing information. However, an ongoing investigation could put the subject into “pending” without him even knowing he was being investigated.
I once had a TICS check go “pending” on me out of the blue, and I had no idea why. The safest bet would be because I’d been doing them at a roughly one-a-week clip for three or four years.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Cool now you can be arrested for not doing anything wrong. Wait that has been happening for years. Oh now you are arrested before you do anything or even you were not doing anything. God I love America. Not even the brits do that. I really could care less what he was planning. His rights were violated. False arrest and unreasonable search and seizure. Lets see 1,2,4,10,14 amendment violations perhaps? Gross misuse of power. Even if he was planning something they still violated his rights. If this guys sues he could get enough for all of us to retire.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
WOW, I heard about this one; HOPE THIS GUY SUES!! This is a good, talk about civil rights violations…well, lets see now, They vilated the 4th by taking him into custody w/out criminal acts,(1)count for each gun they took also as unlawfull siezures, then you have the fifth, they violated his fifth amendment rts, by siezing his property with due process or compensation(1)count for each piece of property, plus if the questioned him with miranda, that would be a count. False arrest if they held him without arrest for a length of time beyond the reasonable scope of questioning or investigation for the issue(I say issue, because there was no criminal offense) This guy can be a multi- millionaire if he finda a real good lawyer. This list could go on for days depending on the totality of the facts and circumstances. The ONLY mitigating factor may be that if they CAN PROVE that he was somem kind of a threat, they may be able to hide behind exigent circumstances as pretense of safety for taking him into custody and taking his weaps, but it would have to be sound proof not some assholes opinion. BUY MORE AMMO
March 10th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
sorry bout the typos, that is “WITHOUT DUE PROCESS”
March 10th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
I couldn’t find the link to the actual article. But it looks like: Get fired, have time on your hands. Decide to pursue a hobby, get arrested. Anybody who gets fired from a government job is going to be disgruntled. Nobody gets fired from a government job unless they are a serious tool OR their boss is a serious tool.
Look next for the police to claim that he made suicidal statements, so they HAD to arrest him, and by the way he loses his rights to ever own a gun again.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
” Look next for the police to claim that he made suicidal statements, so they HAD to arrest him, and by the way he loses his rights to ever own a gun again.” That brings up another question . Assuming this is a 72 hr hold and treat involuntary commitment and given the expansion of nics checks into mental health records. Will the actions of some police officer with NO qualifications in the mental health field be reflected by NICS denials ?
March 10th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
They didn’t arrest him they took in custody for a mental health evaluation. Wife/girlfriend/maybe employer petitions for involuntary commitment because he a danger to himself or others, police put 2 and 3 together get ten seek emergency committal then pick him up. It’s not an arrest, its an abuse of the system and power but its legal.
March 10th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I don’t think it’s only funding restrictions that keep the Feds from storing records of background checks — the federal law that created the system specifically forbids it.
But then, Feds do whatever the hell they want regardless of the law anyway.
March 10th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
If the police are reading this, I want them to know that I am as gruntled as gruntled can be. If I ever feel my gruntle ebbing even a little bit, I promise to seek help and not act out.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Did the guy already own any guns?
It seems to me that if he did, he might have good grounds for a lawsuit.
IANAL, though.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
When has the media ever gotten a story right? Best not get your knickers in a knot about this till it gets sorted.
While I think government in general and cope in particular are a-holes, there might be more to this guy than we’ve heard. If there isn’t then he can retire on the proceeds of a law suit.
Still best to buy guns and such at shows and not leave a paper trail.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
That newspaper site is pretty un-navigable, at least with respect to reading all of the comments on that article. I clicked, and clicked, and clicked, and never did get to see all of them. Also they post them last-first, which is just crazy.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
And this is another reason to buy a few guns to keep around the house.
That way, if you are ever fired from a job and you are NOT ‘disgruntled’ or having any thoughts of doing horrible deeds, then you don’t have to worry about buying a gun and having the cops raid you. You can just go look for another job and still have your protection around the house.
In Oregon I guess I’d be afraid to buy one after being fired (or even breaking up with someone who has a axe to grind.)
March 11th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Latest news: “The man was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation, police said. He was released several hours later.” In other words, the mental health evalutation found nothing, not even enough to run out the clock. He’s now asked for his guns back, and the public response from Medford PD was to list the weeks-long process they go through before returning firearms, i.e., screw you, we’re standing by this.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100311/NEWS07/3110334