Have you ever had a Gun or Knife Stolen by the "Authorities"?

Gun Watch ^ | 31 March, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Confiscated Guns at Auction

Items confiscated by the TSA

Has an authority figure ever used their power to steal something from you?  I have seen it most commonly with guns and knives, where people often do not know the precise law, and allow the theft as a form of low level extortion.  The trade off is clear: the authority figure ends up with your item, and they do not charge you with a crime.  My first experience with this occurred at about age 14.  I wasn't the victim.   I received some of the spoils, but I was shocked by the blatant injustice of it.

My sister had started teaching at an intern position in south Milwaukee.  It was a bad part of town.   She taught grade school to a mostly minority population.  The school policy was no knives, and she confiscated quite a few.  I ended up with a couple, all of which have long ago disappeared.    I asked her how she could justify the theft of this property.   I routinely carried a knife to school, as did every other boy that I knew.    I did not yet understand where dystopian "progressive" policies were leading the country.  As I recall "policy" was her only answer.

As a firearms instructor, I heard numerous complaints about firearms being confiscated for no legal reason in Southern California.    One student said that his brother, who was with the LAPD, had an amazing collection of guns that people had "just given him".

I nearly lost a nice Swiss Army knife that I routinely took on business trips, when I inadvertently left it in a briefcase on the way to catch a plane out of Denver.  TSA routinely confiscates thousands of knives when it is more trouble and expense for the owner to get out of line and ship them home than it is to give them up.   I had enough time to take the knife and briefcase back to the ticket counter and check it as luggage, an option that may cost you more than the knife is worth today.

My neighbor had a nice pocketknife confiscated as he re-entered the United States from a day trip to Mexico.   It did not matter that it was legal and that he had carried it in with him.  This was before Knife Rights lobbied to have the U.S. law clarified.   At international borders, your rights are severely curtailed. 

I suspect that this low level of tyranny is widespread.   Has it ever happened to you?

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[marktwain]

I believe small acts of tyranny such as these are corrosive to our system. It is easy for an officer to see this as "fair", as in, "I did him a favor, I could have arrested him". In some cases, that may be the fact.

[yldstrk]

yes, in fact my son had a rifle taken by the police

[Vinylly]

No

[RinaseaofDs]

Three times. TSA each time. Knives, and flasks.

[DannyTN]

They should have to do what customs at the Canada border does.
They mail it back to your house and you have to pay postage and handling.

[The Working Man]

Yep a very nice folding fillet knife by the police in NYC. Back in 1973 it was. Still ticks me off to this day.

[grobdriver]

One of the Swiss Army knives in that picture belongs-(ed) to me.

[thorvaldr]

TSA took my can opener (P-38)
Oh and a little Swiss Army knife.

[marktwain]

Any details that you can provide might be instructive to the rest of us. I am not talking serial numbers, but an understanding of how it happened, was a receipt given, was any overt threat made, things such as that.

[blackdog]

In 1992 I had a handgun returned to me by the Philly police dept. It was after an FBI investigation found Northeast Detectives placing drop pieces in cars when they would pull over a felon. Instant five years...................

The gun was originally stolen from my home in 1989. The suburban philly township had bad apples who would steal anything not nailed down and fence it at a salvage yard in Abington Township. The owner of that salvage yard was also part of the FBI investigation and ended up doing his time in the Graterford Maximum security prison in Skippack Pa.

Those are different times where the police state was in check. Wouldn't happen today.

[blackdog]

(The bad apples were the cops)

[Lorianne]

Yes, a very small swiss army knife that had zero potential to harm anyone but it had sentimental value to me and was a handy knife to keep in my purse as it has scissors and other tools.

I was trying to visit city official and they took it from me. They wouldn’t hold it for me until I left the building and I had nowhere to put it (was dropped off and didn’t have my car). I should have skipped the meeting and told them why.

[jsanders2001]

> (The bad apples were the cops)

Rotten to the core?...: )

[yldstrk]

He and his buds were shooting at some place they thought was “the country” and got stopped by the police on their way back. All the rifles were confiscated.

When he went to court (surreptitiously, he wanted to handle it himself even though both parents are lawyers), the prosecutor “cut him a deal” part of which was he couldn’t have his property returned.

And to make matters worse, now he is on some database having to do with gun offenses, so it takes extra time any time he wants to buy a firearm.

He was about 19 or 20 when this happened.

[mabarker1]

Yes, in car when pulled over for traffic stop, found out then I had a warrant for a 2 year old NSF check in another County.

Car towed/searched/car impounded/single shot shotgun and hunting knife seized.

5 days in that County jail waiting to be transfered to NSF check County, 12 hours in that County holding cell, ROR due to 1st and only NSF check.

$800 to get car back.

Just at a year to get shotgun back w/help of local Lawyer sending Formal Request to cops threatening legal action if My Property was not returned.

Got shotgun back about a month later, they said “we can’t find the knife”.

I’m sure it just walked out of evidence locker ALL by itself.

[17th Miss Regt]

They took your P-38 can opener? Seriously?

That’s insane!

[mabarker1]

Well, they knew that your plan was to cut your way out of the plane with it at 35,000’.

Right?

[Cyber Liberty]

Nail clippers. TSA.

I’ve had the local courthouse confiscate my pocketknife and “Leatherman,” but they had a place to store them so I could retrieve them with my receipt.

[blackdog]

Now the feds would give the bad apples an award and a grant for their "community interaction application of firearms interdiction in a multijurisdictional approach".

Even though the cops were doing the breaking and entering, theft, fencing, and conspiracy............ But hey that's just good police work these days, shy some dog shooting.