Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
In case you thought government official would never use gun registration records to confiscate the guns of law-abiding owners, think again. Confiscation has been the law in New York state for many years.
If gun owners and their families simply sit still and do nothing, they become automatic criminals in violation of the law
And the paranoid gun-haters' main problem with such a thing, is not its unconstitutionality. It's that the government has (surprise!) done a very poor job of keeping track of who obeys they law!
There is no evidence that the gun-haters notice the crowning irony of this situation, where the government they place their life and safety in the hands of, can't (or won't) even keep track of who is violating the laws the gun-haters have demanded.
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http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/NEWS01/612100348/-1&nclick_check=1
Out-of-date records mar ability to track pistol owners
1:29 AM, Dec 10, 2006 |
Confiscated pistols in the evidence room at Westchester County police headquarters. / Elizabeth Orozco/The Journal News
by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Richard Liebson
The Journal News
Police have lost track of thousands of registered handguns because there's no system in place to keep tabs on the weapons of state pistol permit holders who die, The Journal News has found.
The guns are a symptom of a larger administrative black hole brought on by outdated records and reliance on an "honor system'' requiring families to turn in weapons on their own after a licensed gun owner has died.
"These laws were set up in the 1930s and we've accumulated more than 1.2 million records since then, with no real way of knowing how many are still valid,'' said Lt. Glenn Miner, a spokesman for the New York State Police.
The task of applying the laws falls to the counties, with overtaxed police and sheriffs left to enforce them. County clerks can't be sure which permits are still active, because no one is officially notified when a permit holder dies.
State law requires handgun owners to get permits. The permit lists restrictions on what the gun owner may do, such as keep the gun at his home or place of business or transport it to a target range, up to allowing the weapon to be carried concealed in public. No permit is required to own a rifle or shotgun.
Officials in the three Lower Hudson Valley counties agree that the vast majority of pistol permit holders are law-abiding citizens legally exercising their constitutional right to keep arms. But they are largely left on their own once their permits are approved.
State Penal Law 265.20(f) states that if a permit holder dies, the estate has 15 days to dispose of the weapons. If not, the weapons must be surrendered to "an appropriate official" such as local police, or "the superintendent of state police."
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
If gun owners and their families simply sit still and do nothing, they become automatic criminals in violation of the law
And the paranoid gun-haters' main problem with such a thing, is not its unconstitutionality. It's that the government has (surprise!) done a very poor job of keeping track of who obeys they law!
There is no evidence that the gun-haters notice the crowning irony of this situation, where the government they place their life and safety in the hands of, can't (or won't) even keep track of who is violating the laws the gun-haters have demanded.
--------------------------------------------
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/NEWS01/612100348/-1&nclick_check=1
Out-of-date records mar ability to track pistol owners
1:29 AM, Dec 10, 2006 |
Confiscated pistols in the evidence room at Westchester County police headquarters. / Elizabeth Orozco/The Journal News
by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Richard Liebson
The Journal News
Police have lost track of thousands of registered handguns because there's no system in place to keep tabs on the weapons of state pistol permit holders who die, The Journal News has found.
The guns are a symptom of a larger administrative black hole brought on by outdated records and reliance on an "honor system'' requiring families to turn in weapons on their own after a licensed gun owner has died.
"These laws were set up in the 1930s and we've accumulated more than 1.2 million records since then, with no real way of knowing how many are still valid,'' said Lt. Glenn Miner, a spokesman for the New York State Police.
The task of applying the laws falls to the counties, with overtaxed police and sheriffs left to enforce them. County clerks can't be sure which permits are still active, because no one is officially notified when a permit holder dies.
State law requires handgun owners to get permits. The permit lists restrictions on what the gun owner may do, such as keep the gun at his home or place of business or transport it to a target range, up to allowing the weapon to be carried concealed in public. No permit is required to own a rifle or shotgun.
Officials in the three Lower Hudson Valley counties agree that the vast majority of pistol permit holders are law-abiding citizens legally exercising their constitutional right to keep arms. But they are largely left on their own once their permits are approved.
State Penal Law 265.20(f) states that if a permit holder dies, the estate has 15 days to dispose of the weapons. If not, the weapons must be surrendered to "an appropriate official" such as local police, or "the superintendent of state police."
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
