On the eve of the Oral Arguments, the District of Columbia is planning on "consent searches" on residents in the District searching for illegal firearms. Here's the Washington Post story:
D.C. Seeks Consent To Search for GunsConsent searches...think about that, folks. The jackbooted thugs show up at your house and ask for your...consent...to let them search your house. Both the ACLU and the Second Amendment Foundation are up in arms:
Amnesty Offered for Access to Homes
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 13, 2008
D.C. police are so eager to get guns out of the city that they're offering amnesty to people who allow officers to come into their homes and get the weapons.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced yesterday the Safe Homes Initiative, aimed at parents and guardians who know or suspect that their children or other relatives have guns. Under the deal, police target areas hit by violence and seek adults who let them search their homes for guns, with no risk of arrest. The offer also applies to drugs that turn up during the searches, police said.
The program is scheduled to start March 24 in the Washington Highlands area of Southeast Washington. Officers will go door-to-door seeking permission to search homes for weapons. Police later plan to visit other areas, including sections of Columbia Heights in Northwest and Eckington in Northeast.
Arthur B. Spitzer, legal director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the program is "a very bad idea." He said officers might act so aggressively that residents feel coerced into letting them in.Sptizer is also quoted by another source adding:
"It sends the message to the public that the police ought to be able to search your house anytime for any reason," Spitzer said. "People will be intimidated. That cheapens civil liberties and privacy for everyone.
"How dare Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier launch this program within days of oral arguments challenging a 31-year-old extremist gun law that has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal court,” he continued.“District citizens, as well as members of Congress, should be furious.Alan Gottlieb issues a special SAF Alert on the jackbooted thugs assault on the Consittution:
A plan to conduct “consent searches” for guns in District of Columbia residences is “an outrageous exercise of police state demagoguery,” the Second Amendment Foundation said today.You want to know what's at stake next week at the Supreme Court? This is what's at stake!
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb condemned the plan as “a public relations effort designed to influence, through crass dramatics, Tuesday’s scheduled oral arguments on the constitutionality of the District’s handgun ban before the Supreme Court.”
“Launching this effort,” he stated,“on the eve of Supreme Court arguments over the city’s horribly failed handgun ban underscores the Draconian mentality that lies at the root of gun laws like the District handgun ban.
[...]
“Calling this project the ‘Safe Homes Initiative’ is an insult to our intelligence,” Gottlieb stated.“If District residents allow this to happen, no home will be safe from warrantless fishing expeditions by police, because that’s exactly what this thinly-disguised program is really all about. We think Congress should step in immediately and stop this from happening.
“Isn’t it ironic that the District heads to the Supreme Court next week in an effort to destroy one-tenth of the Bill of Rights,” Gottlieb concluded,“while they prepare to launch the kind of police state exercise the Bill of Rights was designed to prevent.”
All I can say is:
ReplyDeleteBuy what guns and ammo you can afford, NOW!
SHTF is a heart-beat away.
Holy Crap!!! Can book burning be far behind? I agree with Harold--get all the guns and ammo you can afford before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteThey are already doing this in Boston (I think that's the place).
ReplyDeleteI'll google it and confirm
Yep. Here's a link
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/09/police_set_to_search_for_guns_at_homes/?page=1
We need to focus on preserving our Second Amendment rights! Otherwise, buying more guns will only lead to bigger piles of them at the smelter, when confication starts.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic just how many people are ignorant of this issue, or believe that we don't "need" guns. Then there's the ones who don't want us to have them, because they've fallen for the "anti's" false arguments. And the media? Even the so-called conservative cable TV media is avoiding this one, because I suspect that their "star" commentator is actual an "anti" and they're afraid that they'll be toast in the ratings.
I'm glad to see that the "SAF" is taking a vocal position here. How do I join 'em?
Life Member
To the best of my knowledge, the Boston version of this is still in the planning stages. Apparently there are some Constitutional issues at play. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteIf, as the authorities in these cities are claiming, the purpose of this is to help parents find out if their scumbag kids are packing heat, all they need to do is set up a hotline for parents to call to REQUEST a visit from the police if the parent suspects their kids are up to no good.
Of course, I'd prefer to go back to the days when parents believed in this now-outdated notion of PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. But, what can you do? Some people/sheep are beyond help.
But, to have a gang of uniformed police in tactical gear asking residents at their front door for permission to come inside and search their homes is nothing short of jakbooted fascism.
How is a poor, uneducated, easily intimidated person supposed to say no, as is their right to do so?
Last, guns are supposedly banned in DC. By announcing their intentions to go into homes like this is to admit the gun ban is an abject failure. Good luck in getting Fenty's Fascists to admit to that.
Otherwise, buying more guns will only lead to bigger piles of them at the smelter, when confication starts.
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree with that sentiment.
Can't grind what they can't find. I've got a cabin up in [secret location] in which I plan on building a secure under-floor storage space under the braided rug in the living room.
Cold dead hands.
In agreement with bruce about this being an inadvertent admission that, even if you thought they were a good idea, these types of laws simply don't work.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing I thought while reading this is "but I thought there weren't any guns in D.C. because guns are illegal there."
Laughable