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WND News
California Seizes Guns as Owners Lose Right to Bear Arms
By Michael B. Marois & James Nash
Wearing bulletproof vests and
carrying 40-caliber Glock pistols, nine California Justice
Department agents assembled outside a ranch-style house in a
suburb east of Los Angeles. They were looking for a gun owner
who’d recently spent two days in a mental hospital.
California is the only state that tracks and disarms people with legally registered guns who have lost the right to own them, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris. Almost 20,000 gun owners in the state are prohibited from possessing firearms, including convicted felons, those under a domestic violence restraining order or deemed mental unstable.
“What do we do about the guns that are already in the hands of persons who, by law, are considered too dangerous to possess them?” Harris said in a letter to Vice President Joe Biden after a Connecticut school shooting in December left 26 dead. She recommended that Biden, heading a White House review of gun policy, consider California as a national model.
As many as 200,000 people nationwide may no longer be qualified to own firearms, according to Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis. Other states may lack confiscation programs because they don’t track purchases as closely as California, which requires most weapons sales go through a licensed dealer and be reported.
“Very, very few states have an archive of firearm owners like we have,” said Wintemute, who helped set up the program.
Funding Increase
Harris, a 48-year-old Democrat, has asked California lawmakers to more than the number of agents from the current 33 who seized about 2,000 weapons last year, along with 117,000 rounds of ammunition and 11,000 high-capacity magazines, according to state data.“We’re not contacting anybody who can legally own a gun,” said John Marsh, a supervising agent who coordinates the sometimes-contentious seizures. “I got called the Antichrist the other day. Every conspiracy theory you’ve heard of, take that times 10.”
The no-gun list is compiled by cross-referencing files on almost 1 million handgun and assault-weapon owners with databases of new criminal records and involuntary mental-health commitments. About 15 to 20 names are added each day, according to the attorney general’s office.
Probable Cause
Merely being in a database of registered gun owners and having a “disqualifying event,” such as a felony conviction or restraining order, isn’t sufficient evidence for a search warrant, Marsh said March 5 during raids in San Bernardino County. So the agents often must talk their way into a residence to look for weapons, he said.At a house in Fontana, agents were looking for a gun owner with a criminal history of a sex offense, pimping, according to the attorney general’s office. Marsh said that while the woman appeared to be home, they got no answer at the door. Without a warrant, the agents couldn’t enter and had to leave empty- handed.
They had better luck in nearby Upland, where they seized three guns from the home of Lynette Phillips, 48, who’d been hospitalized for mental illness, and her husband, David. One gun was registered to her, two to him.
“The prohibited person can’t have access to a firearm,” regardless of who the registered owner is, said Michelle Gregory, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.
Involuntarily Held
In an interview as agents inventoried the guns, Lynette Phillips said that while she’d been held involuntarily in a mental hospital in December, the nurse who admitted her had exaggerated the magnitude of her condition.Todd Smith, chief executive officer of Aurora Charter Oak Hospital in Covina, where documents provided by Phillips show she was treated, didn’t respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comment on the circumstances of the treatment.
Phillips said her husband used the guns for recreation. She didn’t blame the attorney general’s agents for taking the guns based on the information they had, she said.
“I do feel I have every right to purchase a gun,” Phillips said. “I’m not a threat. We’re law-abiding citizens.”
No one was arrested.
“It’s not unusual to not arrest a mental-health person because every county in the state handles those particular cases differently,” Gregory said by e-mail. “Unless there’s an extenuating need to arrest them on the spot, we refer the case” to the local district attorney’s office, she said.
Convicted Felons
Agents more often arrest convicted felons who are prohibited from buying, receiving, owning or possessing a firearm, Gregory said. Violation of the ban is itself a felony.The state Senate agreed March 7 to expand the seizure program using $24 million in surplus funds from fees that gun dealers charge buyers for background checks.
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, a gun lobby that says it has more than 4 million individuals as members, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the program.
Sam Paredes, executive director of the Folsom-based advocacy group Gun Owners of California, praised the program, though not how it is funded.
“We think that crime control instead of gun control is absolutely the way to go,” he said. “The issue we have is funding this program only from resources from law-abiding gun purchasers. This program has a benefit to the entire public and therefore the entire public should be paying through general- fund expenditures, and not just legal gun owners.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael B. Marois in Sacramento at mmarois@bloomberg.net James Nash in Los Angeles at jnash24@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net
California Department of Justice
police agents walk towards a house near Ontario, California on Tuesday,
March 5, 2013. The agents, working for the only state-level program to
confiscate illegal firearms from owners, targeted people who’d once
legally purchased firearms and lost the right after being convicted of
violent crimes, committed to mental institutions or hit with restraining
orders. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Special Agent Supervisor John
Marsh who coordinates the operations around California, said: “We’re not
contacting anybody who can legally own a gun. The only people we’re
contacting are people who are prohibited from owning guns.”
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Lynette Phillips, 48, and her
husband, David Phillips, 51, sit in their home in Upland, California on
March 5, 2013. Lynette, a nurse, had to surrender three guns after
spending two days in a mental hospital in December. Photographer:
Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Weapons and ammunition seized
from the home of Lynette and David Philllips by agents with the
California Department of Justice police in Upland, California.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Weapons with ammunition seized
from the home of Lynette and David Phillips by agents with the
California Department of Justice police in Upland, California.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
California Department of Justice
police agents walk towards a house near Ontario, California on March 5,
2013. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Special Agent Supervisor John
Marsh with the California Department of Justice drives out to seize
illegal firearms near Ontario, California on March 5, 2013.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-12/california-seizes-guns-as-owners-lose-right-to-bear-arms.html?cmpid=yhoo
Feds buying 100 years worth of ammo
Government's argument 'could only fool a career civil servant'
When the numbers are put in perspective, the federal government’s extraordinary buildup of ammunition looks even more ominous than critics already have portrayed it.
An analysis by Forbes contributor Ralph Benko shows the 1.6 billion rounds of ammo that the government is acquiring would be enough for more than 100 years of training.
As WND previously reported, it also would be enough ammunition to fight a war for more than 20 years.
It would give the federal government enough ammunition to shoot every American more than five times.
The Department of Homeland Security argues it is buying in bulk to save money, explaining it uses as many as 15 million rounds a year for training law enforcement agents.
Forbes columnist Benko, who worked for two years in the U.S. Department of Energy’s general counsel’s office in its procurement and finance division, doubts the government’s explanation.
“To claim that it’s to “get a low price” for a ridiculously wasteful amount is an argument that could only fool a career civil servant,” he writes.
But it’s not just the amount of ammo the feds are buying, it’s the type of ammo that’s also is causing concern.
WND has reported the DHS order apparently includes hollow-point bullets. As WND recently reported, she believes the federal government is “stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest.”
Last month, Palin said the feds were afraid of what might happen if the sequester went into effect and if the government eventually went broke.
She wrote on her Facebook page: “If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion-dollar annual deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us.
We’re finished. We’re going to default eventually, and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest.”
Weeks before Palin’s warning, WND CEO Joseph Farah paired the ammo buildup with a statement made by then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008 calling for a “civilian national security force” as big, as strong and as well-funded as the Defense Department.
In Colorado July 2, 2008, Obama said: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
Farah asked: “Why does the civilian Department of Homeland Security need billions of rounds of ammunition? This is the agency that is responsible for policing the border. But it doesn’t. This is the agency that is responsible for catching terrorists. But it doesn’t. So why does Homeland Security need so many weapons and enough hollow-point rounds to plug every American six times?”
The federal stockpiling of ammunition could cause a problem for local law enforcement agencies. WND reported in January that police and sheriff departments around the country were beginning to experience an ammo shortage.
Brownells, the largest supplier of firearm accessories in the world, reported it had sold several years’ worth of ammunition in just a matter of hours.
The company released a statement apologizing for the delay in fulfilling orders, explaining it had experienced “unprecedented” demand for AR-15 ammunition magazines since earlier in the week.
Gun companies are already fighting back. Olympic Arms of New York, which sells AR-15s and other firearms, says it will no longer sell guns to police. A company statement says that’s because legislation “recently passed in New York outlaws the AR-15 and many other firearms and “will make it illegal for the good and free citizens of New York to own a large selection of legal and safe firearms and magazines.”
“Olympic Arms would like to announce,” the statement said, “that the State of New York, any Law Enforcement Departments, Law Enforcement Officers, First Responders within the State of New York, or any New York State government entity or employee of such an entity – will no longer be served as customers.”
In Texas, LaRue Tactical is refusing to sell its AR rifles to police in states that limit the features of civilian rifles.
Magpul, a gun magazine manufacturer based in Erie, Colo., says it will not sell gun magazines to law enforcement officers unless they pledge to uphold the Second and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Magpul also vows to leave Colorado if House Bill 1224 passes. The bill would limit gun magazines to 15 rounds.
WND has reported growing federal police power across dozens of government agencies for more than a decade and a half.
In 1997, WND exposed the fact that 60,000 federal agents were enforcing more than 3,000 criminal laws. The report prompted Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America to remark: “Good grief, that’s a standing army. … It’s outrageous.”
Also in 1997, as part of a ongoing series on the militarization of the federal government, WND reported armed, “environment crime” cops employed by the Environmental Protection Agency and a federal law enforcement program had trained 325,000 prospective federal police since 1970.
WND also reported on thousands of armed officers in the Inspectors’ General office and a gun-drawn raid on a local flood control center to haul off 40 boxes of paperwork.
WND further reported a plan by then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to hire hundreds of armed Hong Kong policemen in dozens of U.S. federal agencies to counter Asian organized crime in America.
In 1999, Farah warned there were more than 80,000 armed federal law enforcement agents, constituting “the virtual standing army over which the founding fathers had nightmares.” Today, that number has nearly doubled.
Also in 1999 WND reported plans made for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to use military and police forces to deal with Y2K.
In 2000, Farah discussed a Justice Department report on the growth of federal police agents under President Clinton, something Farah labeled “the biggest arms buildup in the history of the federal government – and it’s not taking place in the Defense Department.”
A 2001 report warned of a persistent campaign by the Department of the Interior, this time following 9/11, to gain police powers for its agents.
In 2008, WND reported on proposed rules to expand the military’s use inside U.S. borders to prevent “environmental damage” or respond to “special events” and to establish policies for “military support for civilian law enforcement.”
Demand access to tax-funded research | EFFector 26.06
In our 633rd issue:
Demand Access to Tax-Funded Research
Government agencies like the National Science Foundation invest
millions of taxpayer dollars into scientific research every year. But
taxpayers can't access any of the results of this research unless they
pay thousands of dollars to buy academic journals. The Fair Access to
Science & Technology Research (FASTR) Act would fix this, making
tax-funded research available to the public. Tell Congress to support
open access to knowledge by sending a note to your elected representative now.
Students: Get Your University Press to Support FASTR
Many schools have associated nonprofit publishing bodies known
as university presses. This gives students and universities a unique,
powerful role to play in pushing for open access reform like the FASTR
Act. Here's what you can do to get your university to support access to
knowledge.
How To Opt Out of Receiving Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity
Facebook has announced that it’s teaming up with four of the
world’s largest corporate data brokers to "enhance" the ad experience
for users. In practical terms, this means that limiting how much
information you put on Facebook is not enough to limit how ads are
targeted to you on Facebook. Your interests, age, shopping history
(including offline), web browsing, location, and much more could be
stored by these data brokers and utilized to market to you – even if
you’ve been careful not to share this type of information with Facebook.
Check out EFF's guide to opting
out.
White House Supports Unlocking Phones -- But the Real Problem Runs Deeper
The White House has come out in support of legalizing the
unlocking of cell phones for use on different carriers, saying it makes
"common sense." The White House is correct: the failure to protect phone
unlockers from legal threats was misguided. But the more important
problem is that the DMCA puts an unelected official in charge of
regulating personal devices in the first place. What really rubs against
the grain of common sense is the premise, set forth in DMCA's section
1201, that the Librarian of Congress should have to temporarily
whitelist certain uses every three years.
EFF Updates
In an unprecedented win for transparency, Google began
publishing generalized information about the number of National Security
Letters that the company received in the past year as well as the total
number of user accounts affected by those requests.
In a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Cornyn
asked Attorney General Holder about the prosecution of late digital
rights activist Aaron Swartz. Unsurprisingly, the Attorney General
denied any prosecutorial misconduct but, at the behest of Senator Leahy,
did promise to look into the aggressive use of the Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act (CFAA)—one of the laws used to prosecute Aaron.
We've long criticized the vague language of the Cyber
Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act(CISPA). One particularly
dangerous provision, designed to enable corporations to obtain and share
information, is drafted broadly enough to go beyond just companies,
creating a government access loophole.
The 16th round of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific
Partnership agreement (TPP) began in Singapore, where trade delegates
and private stakeholders from 11 participating countries gather to
discuss this the contours of Pacific trade. EFF and many others are
deeply concerned about TPP, because it may contain an intellectual
property chapter that would ratchet up enforcement at the expense of
digital rights.
The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Maryland v. King,
a case considering the constitutionality of warrantless DNA collection
from arrestees. One idea that surfaced in these oral arguments—that
technological advances making DNA analysis faster means warrantless
collection may be OK—should leave you worried about the fate of privacy
going forward in the digital age.
Some 28 states are weighing legislation addressing the issue of
employers demanding user names and passwords for social media accounts
as a contingency for employment. But the proposed laws vary greatly in
whether they would effectively safeguard the privacy of employees.
A group of investigators from Chinese magazine Caixin recently
uncovered the activities of Beijing's "dark PR" agencies, which take
money from private companies to bribe Internet censors to delete
unfavorable commentary on Chinese forums and microblogging sites, using
the infrastructure that the Chinese authorities have built for political
censorship.
miniLinks
The new Humble Bundle with Android 5 lets you pay what you want for six great cross-platform, DRM-free games -- while also supporting charities like EFF.Namecheap is running a campaign to raise awareness about the privacy-invasive CISPA while also supporting EFF: they are donating $1 to EFF for every tweet using the hashtag #CISPAAlert.
Join a grassroots campaign to fix the anti-circumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (section 1201).
Supported by Members
Our members make it possible for EFF to bring legal and
technological expertise into crucial battles about online rights.
Whether defending free speech online or challenging unconstitutional
surveillance, your participation makes a difference. Every donation
gives technology users who value freedom online a stronger voice and
more formidable advocate.
If you aren't already, please consider becoming an EFF member today.
Administrivia
Editor: Rainey Reitman, Activism Director
editor@eff.org
editor@eff.org
EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
eff.org
eff.org
Membership & donation queries: membership@eff.org
General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries: info@eff.org
Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. MiniLinks do not necessarily represent the views of EFF.
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Announcements
A number of EFF staff are in Austin for SXSW this year. Come by our panels or stop by our booth and say hello.
March 8-13, 2013 Austin, Texas
Technology Projects Director Peter Eckersley will give an
overview of several of EFF's tech projects to encrypt the web -
including HTTPS Everywhere, the SSL Observatory, Sovereign Keys, and
efforts to persuade major sites to deploy HTTPS. This event is hosted by
Stanford University and is open to the public.
March 11, 2013 Stanford, CA
Hosted by Santa Clara Law's High Tech Law Institute, this
conference will look at the past, present, and future of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Intellectual Property Director Corynne
McSherry and Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann will speak.
March 15, 2013 Santa Clara, CA
CryptoParty is a worldwide series of events aimed at
spreading information and know-how about privacy, security, and
encryption tools. It exists to empower beginners and more advanced
cypherpunks alike.
March 23, 2013 San Francisco, CA
Free Press's 2013 will include panels by EFF activists
Rainey Reitman, Trevor Timm, and Adi Kamdar. This conference brings
together journalists, activists, artists, and media reformers of all
walks together to celebrate the future of media.
Get a 10% discount on registration using the code: EFF_NCMR April 5-8, 2012 Denver, CO |
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