California Department of Justice police agents walk towards a house near Ontario, California on March 5, 2013.
Photo Credit:Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
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.
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.
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.”
Weapons and ammunition seized from the home of Lynette and David Philllips by agents with the California Department of Justice police in Upland, California.
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.
Special Agent Supervisor John Marsh with the California Department of Justice drives out to seize illegal firearms near Ontario, California on March 5, 2013.
They knocked on the door and asked to come in. About 45 minutes later, they came away peacefully with three firearms.
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 mentally 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 double the number of agents from the current 33. They seized about 2,000 weapons last year. Agents also took 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. Most seized weapons are destroyed, Gregory said.
“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.
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Comments
Alot of folks forget that when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsamene he asked his disciples to sell their cloaks and buy a sword . Guns are the present day swords .
Those in authoritys favorite way to take away your guns is that " involuntary committment for observation " in a mental facility . You'll never walk out of there with your gun or your right to bear arms . CA sheriffs do it all the time and so do some other states and cities . Don't get committed or you're in trouble . The facility doesn't have to find a reason just the fact of committment is all it takes . If you have the money you may be able to straighten it out through the use of a lawyer .
Knock,knock; bangbang.
Lori,would you let evil hurt a little child that you could help ?,would you turn away. I dont think so,none of us can nor should we,we have to stand up to tyranny. This is what they have taken away from our children being taught,history,truth and why. Evil cannot stand and GOD will be there with all who breathe to be free. We live in Gods Time,NOW AND ALWAYS.
Will follow founding fathers. My oath to defend to death.
This is not a kingdom lori and we are not GOD. We are people trying to keep our freedom. Why is it so easy for people to just bend over and say things like,oh,they wont do that,or they wont take those away, ARE YOU KIDDING. Have you ever in your lifetime seen this much turmoil in our country?,have you?. I do believe their is a pretty good reason why, OBUMMER!,COMMUNISM,MARXISM,EVERY DARN ISM YOU CAN THINK OF-EVIL AT ITS WORSE. DO NOTHING AND YOU WILL BE TUMBLEWEED,STAND UP AND TELL THEM NO AND YOU BECOME AS JESUS DID,ELEVATED TO HEAVEN AS GODS FREEDOM FIGHTER ,FIGHTING FOR ALL HUMANITY. LOOK AROUND THE WORLD,WHY DO PEOPLE LOOK UP TO AND WANT TO COME TO AMERICA,BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE WHAT WE HAVE HERE,ATLEAST HAD HERE. FREEDOM.LAUGHTER,LIBERTY,RELIGION AND PEACE OF MIND IN KNOWING WE DO TRULY HAVE A RIGHT TO BE. YOU CHOOSE FOR YOU,DONT TRY CHOOSING FOR ME,SAME FOR MY RIGHTS. GOD BLESS AMERICA
A kingdom ruled under the iron fist of a totalitarian dictatorship is not a place I want to live. If need be let it fall. I'd rather see all patriots come together and see to it, that freedom will live on.
Dear Lori, We are not jesus. God gave us our rights as spelled out plainly in our constitution with the bill of rights written by the hand of God. These gentleman were given a task and a task they handled with great care. Whenever freedom is given it is through the hand of God,Whenever our rights are taken away,the devil is at work and must be exposed with the light of God,The truth!. My forefathers did not die in vain,i will not allow it,even if people are so ignorant to see what is staring them right in their face, HISTORY WILL REPEAT IF YOU DO NOT LEARN THE TRUTH OR CARE TO LEARN WHY WE ARE FREE NOW,WHO DIED AND WHY.
Lori, It's not guns that we're fighting for. It's freedom that the fight is about, and yes, I'm willing to fight and die for freedom as were our Founding Fathers, and soldiers that fought for our freedom every since. Guns are only tools used if the fight for freedom.
My feeling is that the people also too dangerous to have guns are the government stooges who work for Obama.
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