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NY case on destruction of guns
Pdf here. Plaintiff surrendered his guns to a sheriff, pursuant to a protection order entered in his divorce case. The sheriff destroyed them before the divorce case was over. The Court of Appeals held that he had a property interest in his firearms, the statute authorizing the sheriff to destroy unclaimed firearms after a year only applied to handguns, there was no qualified immunity since a reasonable LEO reading the statute would have known that. It also held that the sheriff's department (rather than just the person who destroyed the firearms) was open to suit since had an office policy allowing such illegal destruction.
Comments
the statute authorizing the sheriff to destroy unclaimed firearms after a year only applied to handguns. Even that is crazy as they were not unclaimed! I hope they really take ghim to the cleaners and fire him too.
Posted by: rich at November 15, 2009 06:01 PM
Fire him, Hell. Send his ass to jail.
Posted by: straightarrow at November 15, 2009 07:17 PM
jail - that would too much to hope for!
Posted by: Rich at November 16, 2009 06:00 AM
Even if they were handguns, these firearms weren't "unclaimed" in any event. The Sheriff knew exactly who claimed ownership of them.
Posted by: 30yearprof at November 16, 2009 04:59 PM
Ah yes, anti-gun cops. Creating good will wherever they go. Sheesh!
Posted by: Brad at November 20, 2009 12:12 AM