Connecticut gun seizure law taking fire

Constitution News Keywords: GUNS, GUN CONTROL, SECOND AMENDMENT, CONSTITUTION
Source: USA Today
Published: 2/14/00 Author: John Larrabee
Posted on 02/15/2000 18:39:50 PST by RogueIsland

Connecticut gun seizure law taking fire
By John Larrabee
USA TODAY

NEWINGTON, Conn. — When gun owners crowd the Newington Gun Exchange during the weekend, the talk turns to the recent police raids on two homes in town.

On both occasions, officers searched for and seized legally owned guns and ammunition, even though no one faced criminal charges. Under a new and controversial state law aimed at curbing gun violence, police can confiscate firearms based on nothing more than their belief the owner might be a danger to himself or others.

Jason Baltrucki, a target shooter from nearby Marlboro, speaks for a majority of the gun shop customers in his criticism of the law. ”If you’re feuding with an ex-girlfriend, what’s to stop her from calling the police and saying you’re a dangerous person?” he asks. ”You’ve done nothing wrong, but the police are at your door and your guns are gone.”

Not all gun owners oppose the law, which went into effect Oct. 1.

”I don’t have an objection to a law that takes guns out of the hands of someone who shouldn’t have them,” says Randy Graichen, a gun collector in the Newington shop to buy a replica of a .45-caliber revolver from the Old West. ”I have a number of guns, but this law doesn’t worry me.”

Lawmakers had potentially dangerous people in mind when they gave Connecticut police the nation’s most sweeping power to seize legally owned guns. Had the law been on the books two years ago, they argue, it might have prevented a rampage in Newington that left five people dead.

In March 1998, Matthew Beck, an accountant at the state lottery commission’s Newington office, brought a gun to work, hunted down four supervisors, then killed himself. Beck had made threats for weeks before the shootings.

”There’s a simple reason for this kind of legislation: In our society, there are individuals who snap and end up killing people,” says state Rep. Michael Lawlor, a Democrat who helped draft the law.

Though Connecticut legislators predicted their law would result in no more than two or three actions a year, police have searched homes or cars on at least eight occasions.

A backlash is growing. Critics charge the law runs afoul of the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. There’s talk of repealing or amending the statute during the new legislative session, now under way.

”It’s an unnecessary law,” says shop owner Lawrence Irvine, a former police officer. ”If there’s probable cause, police can get a search warrant and seize firearms without this type of legislation.”

Who has lost their guns?

In Newington, police took more than 40 weapons from a gun collector after he allegedly threatened a relative. The cache included a flamethrower and assault rifles fitted with laser sights. A few weeks later, police took a rifle, a bayonet, and ammunition from another Newington home when the owner’s relatives told police he’d talked of suicide.

Greenwich police filed criminal charges against gun collector Thompson Bosee after a search turned up a World War II-era submachine gun in his home. A neighbor’s complaint prompted the search.

Bosee has vowed to challenge the statute, whose constitutionality has not been tested yet in the courts.

The law requires police to investigate reports that a gun owner has made threats, brandished guns or indicated he might pose a danger to himself. Officers must first ask the owner to turn in his firearms. If he refuses, they can ask a judge for a search-and-seizure warrant. A judge must decide whether the weapons should be returned within 14 days. Should the judge decide to hold the guns, they must be returned after one year.

Before the law was passed, police officers could only seize a weapon if its owner was arrested or committed to a mental institution.

In many cases, officers would confiscate anyway. ”We’d just stick our necks out, but we could only keep the guns for a few days,” says West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci. Some of his officers used the new authority in November to take six pistols and a rifle from a Korean War veteran who allegedly said he was having combat flashbacks.

The National Rifle Association has taken no position on the law. Two other gun rights groups, the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen and the Gun Owners Action League, are questioning the law.

Criticism goes beyond gun clubs and shooting ranges. Defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union are outspoken against the legislation. ”We could be sending officers into dozens of homes soon, maybe hundreds,” says state Rep. Richard Tulisano, a Democrat. ”It used to be thought a man’s home was his castle; now, there is a reason for filling in the moat.”

Defense lawyers fear abuse of the new law.

”Anyone can make a complaint to police, even for vindictive purposes,” says Gerard Smythe, head of the state’s public defenders. Law enforcement officials say the legislation is an important tool for saving lives. ”This law allows us to step in before it’s too late,” Strillacci says. ”Whoever predicted it would only be used a few times a year underestimated the number of people who are emotionally disturbed, mentally impaired or substance abusers and who own firearms.”

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Maybe, just maybe, the totalitarian leanings of the gun-grabbers and Constitution haters are beginning to dawn on some people. Hope it’s not too late.