Posted on 01/17/2002 4:44:05 PM PST by Abundy
Gun seizure prompts House Bill 55
MICHAEL A. SAWYERS
Times-News Staff Writer
CRESAPTOWN -- In 1983, at the age of 23, Larry Dicken got in a shoving match resulting from a property boundary dispute and was convicted of misdemeanor battery, as was the other party involved in the mutual confrontation.
Because of that, 18 years later -- in August of this past year -- Maryland State Police came to Dicken's Louise Drive home and confiscated all 14 of his firearms.
The firearms were confiscated by what state police call the Cease Fire Unit.
"The attorney general has advised state police to interpret existing federal law in such a way as to allow for these types of confiscations of guns from law-abiding citizens. It's unacceptable," said Delegate Kevin Kelly. The delegate said SWAT teams are used to retrieve guns in some situations.
Kelly and Dicken are close friends. When police told Dicken what was coming down, he called Kelly, an attorney, who was present for much of the gun confiscation. State police took Dicken's handguns, but allowed Kelly to take possession of his friend's longguns, the delegate said.
Kelly, a staunch defender of the rights of gun owners, touts the fact that he is the only member of the Maryland General Assembly to receive Defender of Freedom awards from the National Rifle Association and the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association. The Allegany County Democrat has introduced House Bill 55 to clarify when gun confiscations are legal. The bill's four co-sponsors include Speaker of the House Casper Taylor Jr. and Delegate George Edwards.
Kelly said the 1983 assault conviction resulted in a $100 fine and a 30-day suspended jail sentence for Dicken. But because a jail term of one year or more could have been imposed, his firearms were confiscated.
Dicken's guns were confiscated after he was rejected in an attempt to purchase a handgun at a Hancock dealer, even though he had successfully purchased other handguns there in 1999 and 2000, Kelly said.
Kelly's House Bill 55 would prevent state officials from enforcing the federal statute and would clearly state that anyone who actually was sentenced to a year or more in jail would be forbidden from ever again owning or possessing a gun in Maryland.
"The federal statute does not have to be enforced anyway," Kelly said. "The wording is that it could be enforced in states, not that it shall be enforced."
Kelly said he is not surprised at the current enforcement scenario, and that it is in line with opinions expressed by Attorney General Joseph Curran in his document "A Farewell To Arms," which deals with gun laws and gun ownership in Maryland.
"I was shocked when the police said they were going to take my guns," Dicken said, admitting that he cursed at the two plainclothes officers last August after they told him why they were at his house. "Then I called Kevin."
Police also confiscated a handgun registered to Dicken's wife, Kathy. Eventually, all guns were returned after being put in Kathy's name. They are kept in a cabinet to which Larry says he does not have a key.
"I'd get five years in jail if I shot a bullet at a tin can, and my wife would be charged for letting me do it," he said. "If I didn't know Kevin, we probably would never have seen those guns again."
A call Tuesday by the Times-News to Lt. Bud Frank, Maryland State Police, Pikesville, was not returned.
The Cease Fire unit has been telling citizens they don't need a warrant; is not compensating these citizens for the property they seize; is applying a change in the law regarding firearms disability retroactively; and is searching a database of previously legal firearms purchasers/purchases to confiscate these firearms.
Joe Curran and David Mitchell (the Attorney General and the head of the Maryland State Police) should be disbarred for their obvious disregard of these constitutional rights of the citizens they serve.
I took an oath when I joined the military; To defend to the Constitution of the United States from enemies foreign and domestic.
And it looks like Maryland has no regard for the Constitution or our rights.
I feel sorry for y'all.
registration???,ahh,never mind.
How the majority, the sheeple including Orthodox Jews in Poland finally (and am only half way through)got shipped off to the "camps". They got put in the pot and the water warmed up slowley until they were cooked. The Gestapo played them like fiddles until it was too late.
Then I think about Farakahn, the militant Islamics in this country, and then the lib gun grabbers and it sounds like we are on the edge.
Give it a generation or two with the NEA in the classrooms and the "two minutes hate" media, and who knows what will happen. But I don't think it will be good.
ME
Anytime there is gun control stuff I can use in my senior high classroom especially where it concerns the loss of FREEDOM...I'd like to know about it. Thanks.
Me
I am also afraid that we are just seeing the beginning of this. 9/11 was just what they needed to implement this type of agenda. Constitution-hating, rotter politicians. Oops, didn't mean to be redundant.
I'm going to volunteer to testify in favor of the bill - which will probably cost me my job.
Emigrate to gun-friendly Virginia! No job in Maryland is that far from some place in Virginia - and D.C. jobs are right nearby.
You are a fool to stay in Maryland. Populated by very few but ultraliberal "federal workers" (oxymoron) and Baltimore's huge black slum population, it will only get (much) worse - not only in gun rights, but in taxes and quality-of-life issues like government schools. (Do you know that on 5/20/98, the Washington Post reported that the state of Maryland now has so many schoolkids on probation at any one time that it is assigning probation officers to schools?) If you stay in Maryland, in many places that will soon mean private-school tuition to have your kid in a decent school; the Washington Post recently ran a big story about the slummification of an upper-middle-class Maryland suburb of D.C.'s schools.
Scandals of antigun politicians - from Kalifornia to Manhattan!
Gee, isn't that special?
/john
Bttt
When the cops ask what where is that 9mm registered in your name the correct response is, "Oh I traded that for a .44 magnum several years ago"
I wish you a stout heart and good luck.
L
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