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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.
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Fire him, Hell. Send his ass to jail.
jail - that would too much to hope for!
Even if they were handguns, these firearms weren't "unclaimed" in any event. The Sheriff knew exactly who claimed ownership of them.
Ah yes, anti-gun cops. Creating good will wherever they go. Sheesh!
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.