Warning shot?
You are right, it is theft tho I am not sure it is legal. At one time cops kept them just to steal the property. I think now it is more of an anti-gun attitude.
One of my college friends was the son of a small town Florida police chief. He had amassed a large collection of guns.
The cops have the power to do it so they do it whether it is legal or not.
Filthy pigs are filthy pigs, and filthy pigs will always act like filthy pigs. God I hate the pigs!
I’m not an attorney, but I wonder why the guy couldn’t just file his own Small Claims Court action against the PD?
No attorney fees. It would get the matter in front of a judge. Sounds like he would most certainly win.
Probably should have stopped after the first "warning shot". Be hard to justify discharging your weapon after he fled. Where did the bullets from the warning shots go? More to this I'll bet.
Go to the clerk’s office and ask for a small claims complaint. You might be able to get a copy on-line by searching for your county web-site, click on `Forms.’
Write on the complaint that the action/claim is for `replevin’ (return of wrongfully withheld property) and, in the space for your `statement of the claim’, explain what happened.
Name the police chief (or sheriff) as defendant, along with the prosecutor. Make sure to ask for an award of your filing fee. Or see a lawyer. He may advise you to amend your claim to request treble damages and his fees.
This is what I would do in my state. Your state may be different. If you go pro se (repping yourself) be nice to the deputy clerk when asking questions and they usually reciprocate/may help you fill out the claim. (But make sure you write in the defendants’ names last.)
Never fire a warning shot. If its worth a warning shot its worth a shot to center mass.
I bet he never sees the gun again.
” At no time was I trying to hit him.”
Your first mistake......firing a weapon is the application of deadly force. If you didn’t mean to hit him, you shouln’t have fired in the first place.
Warning shots are an interesting theory. See, those bullets end up somewhere, and potentially in an innocent victim.
I was a Customs Inspector. I attended the academy and carried a gun in the line of duty. We were taught to “shoot to stop” the threat. And we qualified at the range every quarter. We shot at targets with a human silouette. Two rounds to the center of mass, and one to the head. Yup. That would stop them!
Friend; If you legally own a firearm and your life is in jeopardy...It’s called double tap. Never fire a warning shot because Its his word again yours. Good luck
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound. -Anon.
Corollary: A man found dead in his backyard, beaten to death with a tire iron, is somehow morally superior to a man explaining to police how he scared off the tire iron armed attacker with a gun he wasn’t willing to use to shoot him.
I wonder about the claim ‘my gun was registered.’ Registered with whom? Why?
Guns are for killing, not scaring. Warning shots are a bad idea.
If you go the small claims route you must realize that you will not get your gun back, only its cash value. Small claims has no authority to force the police to comply. They can only award money. So you must decide, is it the gun you want or the money it’s worth?
I yelled at him to come to me and he came at me with a tire iron in hand. He was less than 10 feet away when I fired a warning shot. He turned and ran; I fired more shots trying to get him to stop. At no time was I trying to hit him.
Why did the guy have a gun in the first place.
And, on giving warnings before engaging someone, “What are you trying to do? Turn it into a sporting event?”
Ever come across someone you shouldn’t of fucked with, well that’s me
Clint Eastwood Gran Torino
I spent more money and time than the thing was worth in order to recover it.
That is what you have to do if you want it back.
You shouldn’t use deadly force unless you are in immediate fear of great bodily harm or death unless you want to sign your house over to a lawyer. And a “warning shot” is still deadly force. Thus, sensible people do not fire “warning shots.”
There’s the problem. He should never have admitted he had the gun with him. His story should have been the guy was startled by him and bolted. End of story.
In my opinion this idiot should have his firearms confiscated by the Police, because he has no idea on the proper use of deadly force.
Along with the "right" to keep and bear arms, comes a responsibility to "know the laws regarding deadly force" as ignorance of the law is no excuse. In many (not all) jurisdictions, deadly force (i.e. firing a firearm) can only be legally used, if the person is in fear for their life or safety and/or that of another person.
In some jurisdictions one can used deadly force to protect one's property, but that is often legally dangerous.
The thief came at the guy with a tire iron. If instead of firing warning shots and telling the police he never intended to shoot the person with the tire iron, he would has honestly just shot and killed the thief or he would have honestly told the police he shot in self defense trying to kill the thief, but he must have been so scared that the missed, the police would probably have done nothing to the home owner. By saying he didn't fear for his life, he admitted that he used deadly force when he did not perceive the situation to require deadly force.
The guy was probably ignorant of the law. Dumb and ignorant gets you in trouble all the time with the police.