Police act swiftly after gun purchases

Mail Tribune ^ | March 09, 2010 | Anita Burke

[B-Cause]

Concerns about an Oregon Department of Transportation employee who purchased several guns after being placed on leave prompted law enforcement across Southern Oregon to step in.

Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man

[B-Cause]

Since the Medford Police seemed to have acted illegally, this should be a big story for the Medford Mail Tribune. Should go national, but only if the local editor allows the writer to treat this story like the illegal arrest story that it is. Arresting people before they commit a crime smacks of futuristic syfi stuff and powers that the police don't have... yet. Just because a former employer and the police fear something, doesn't make it so. That's why search warrents and privacy laws are in place.

[sinanju]

“Minority Report”??

Aw shucks! Somebody wanted to do this guy a favor. Now he’ll make a couple million from his lawsuit to tide him over the loss of his job.

[mlocher]

Medford's hostage negotiators and SWAT team were called in at 3 a.m. Monday and arrived on the scene at about 5:45 a.m., he said.

Almost 3 hours? Are things always this "speedy" in Oregon?

[LouAvul]

Instead of being reactive, we took a proactive approach

That's pretty wild. They suspected a guy might go off so they confiscated his legally purchased firearms? What kind of idiot cops do they have in oregone?

[Domandred]

Oh boy good thing I bought a bunch of fishing gear instead of shooting gear when my job ran out.

Knew I probably wasn’t gonna be able to buy it later so I stocked up for fall season now.

[mockingbyrd]

The cops are refusing to answer ANY questions regarding this incident. Didn’t return any calls. To me, that indicates that this stinks to high heaven.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

Ahhh the good ole mental-health evaluation trick.

I see the Gestapo is alive and well in Oregon.

[ConservaTexan]

Police are holding the weapons for safekeeping, but no criminal charges have been filed.

[smokingfrog]

Seems to be pretty much over the top unless he actually made some threats toward somebody.

[KoRn]

"the man bought a Heckler & Koch .45-caliber universal self-loading handgun"

ROFL!!! That would be a USP... Universal Self-loading Pistol. I should know because I have one(USP Tactical, .45ACP).

[luv2ndamend]

Coming to a town near you! If the bill that McInsane wants to get through congress passes.

[dagogo redux]

You gotta factor in the fact that, like so may disgruntled employees who "go postal", he was a public employee. Probably ups the ante a bit. /s

[SkyDancer]

But just see what would happen if a distraught woman called the police saying her ex-boyfriend/husband called to say he’s coming over to kill her ... cops would tell her since it hasn’t happened yet we can’t do anything .... there was a real life situation where a woman and her mom were killed even though they called 911 several times ...

[editor-surveyor]

Insane!

If much more of this happens, people will start shooting cops on site out of induced paranoia.

[driftdiver]

My question is how did they know he bought them. Does Oregon have some kind of registration or tracking system?

[driftdiver]

Hopefully you don’t live in Oregon.

[Blue Highway]

Police are holding the weapons for safekeeping, but no criminal charges have been filed.

Safekeeping, but are they planning on returning them, and if so, how long do they safekeep this guys legally purchased firearms?

[Navy Patriot]

Hopefully, this guy will put the city of Medford into bankruptcy.

[MaxMax]

I guess these people were for Bush' preemptive strike, or it's only
right when they do it. Sue them into bankruptcy!

[Ramius]

LOL... an H&K USP. Nice pistol.

Might get one myself.