Veterans firearm collection confiscated for admittedly no reason

Her cache somehow caught the attention of Lakewood Police, who paid a visit last September. When they found Rice wasn’t home, they asked an obliging employee of the complex to open up the apartment without her consent. Once inside, they raided the gun rack, making off with 13 firearms worth around $15,000. The only problem: They had no apparent reason to.

When Rice kindly asked to have her toys returned, the cops acknowledged that the weapons were legally owned. But they refused to return them without a court order. And so Rice has filed suit in Lakewood Municipal Court.

link

This is the only source to the story I can find at the moment. As it is it sounds like police can wander into any home, take anything, and force you to jump through hoops to get your property back.

I know this to be true. I dont know if this is the case in this instance but this behavior is not without precedent.

Her being a vet brings an extra sense of conspiratorial paranoia to the story.

More info:

www.lovelakewood.com... -vet-asks-city-to-return-seized-weapons/

Court filing

List of firearms confiscated:

- SKS M-21 Sniper Rifle
- Ruger Blackhawk .357
- Sentinel Arms 12 Gauge
- Gemtech .22 LR
- Ruger Mark II .22 LR
- Antique double barrel percussion shotgun
- Springfield Arms .45 ACP
- Thompson M1928 .45 ACP Semi-automatic
- Mossberg 500A 12 Gauge Shotgun
- Valkyrie Arms M3 .45 ACP Semi-automatic
- Smith & Wesson M-686 .357
- Makarov 9mm
- Colt Model M1851 .44 Revolver

The court document claims there are no charges against her, the guns are legally owned and there was no warrant to enter the apartment.

Why does the US have a bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms when all three are supposedly legal?

Forget your constitution your only rights are the one your government allows you.

I'm also concerned with "somehow caught the attention"? Really? Did she do something? Did a neighbor see them and tell police? Do we now have to be careful of whom we let in our homes because of what they might see?

Not knowing the whole story, as far as I'm concerned, the only thing she should have done is kept them in a gun safe, then nobody would know what all she had. But it is her home....
Very wrong of the police anyway!

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


This one has been going for some time. The Lakewood PD seem to think she has PTSD or is somehow under mental eval, which would prevent her from obtaining firearms. I'm curious as to what her disability is.

www.survivalistboards.com...

And what the hell is a SKS M-21 sniper rifle? It just does not exist.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


She should sue the hell out of the apartment complex for that employee letting them into her apartment without a warrant and bring criminal felony theft and burglary charges against the police officers for the theft of the weapons.

Police are supposed to enforce the law, not break it. Whan they do, especially when they use their authority to do it, they should be locked up with the rest of the hardened criminals.

The article doesn't mention a warrant....wonder if there was one. There is a whole roster of things wrong with this one, wish we had the whole story. I would consider suing the police department and the apartment complex (their employee let the police in) and I would be on every news program I could talking about this.

Another one bites the dust.

I don't know what's more absurd, really.

That you all think this is not exactly what we can expect, that it is an isolated incident, or that there is anything that can be done about it and every other case.



From one combat vet to you, anyone who has fought the enemy head on is far more qualified to handle firearms than 100% of the population, PTSD just means that we aren't afraid to use them. I've had dealings with PTSD, been diagnosed, go to groups, help other soldiers, and will vouch for 100% of them. I've also seen friends go off to the looney bin because of different stresses, including PTSD. If you think there's some mental disorder out there that turns your neighbor, brother, sister, or friend into a knee-jerk killer, you've not got a clue.

In fact, I think it's our duty as highly trained combat veterans to carry weapons when at all possible.

Millions of dollars in training shouldn't go to waste when it can protect people.

probably one of the cops liked some of the weapons and thought that they'd be able to confiscate them and he'd get a nice early christmas present from the evidence locker for free

Originally posted by TDawgRex
And what the hell is a SKS M-21 sniper rifle? It just does not exist.

edit on 1-9-2011 by TDawgRex because: (no reason given)

"Sniper rifle" is just hoplophobe slang for scoped.

Or, from what Ive seen of the majority cops Ive shot with, trained and competed against over the years, they're just dumb ass bricks who don't know jack about the things they are allegedly trained to handle everyday.

The trouble with a lot of the tin badge authority types is they lock their brains to reality and just make things up from the inside of their heads and know these things to be true because the tin badge means they're better than you and me. Delusional would be an understatement.

And they have good reason to feel like they are. The world is full of idiots like the apartment complex employee who just see a monkey in a uniform and do what they tell them to without question.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

Police are supposed to enforce the law, not break it. Whan they do, especially when they use their authority to do it, they should be locked up with the rest of the hardened criminals.

The Ku Klux Klan / Civil Rights Act covers just that. Operating under "color of law" to violate people.

Cops do this when threats are made. They do this to avoid arresting the threat so they have less paper work.