Break No Laws, Have Guns Confiscated
Police visited a man (Jack Wilkinson, 64) whom family members said was despondent because he has been battling illness and who they said had threatened suicide. They found kerosene and space heaters “near” containers of gunpowder. [Note: this is June. Not a lot of spaceheaters running at this time of year, even in Indiana.]
But the Sheriff said the “weapons” had to be taken out “for the safety of the community.”
“If there would’ve been a fire that broke out, it not only would have destroyed the house, but potentially the houses around his residence,” Sheridan said.
But wait, there’s more!
In true 1984 fashion, the police have a policy of removing weapons from law abiding citizens who they believe to be suicidal.
Wilkinson was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. He remained there Wednesday, but not in a psychiatric ward, officials said.
So the evaluation must have turned out OK. But the police removed $30,000 in guns, 2,000 pounds of ammunition and 400 pounds of gunpowder from the man’s home anyway.
Only they had to destroy the guy’s gunpowder because they didn’t have a place to store it. It’s too “volatile” to store in a public building. [Last time I looked gunpowder wasn't volatile at all. It just sorta sits there, even in an earthquake. TNT -- now that's volatile.]
The $30,000 in guns and 2,000 pounds of ammunition are being held until prosecutors and the county attorney can determine whether Wilkinson is stable enough to have them back.
The State taketh away. The State sayeth if you can have it back. But don’t hold your breath.
Brian Wilkinson said his uncle was an experienced gun collector and was not a threat.“All that ammunition – they took 2,000 pounds, and I bet he reloaded every bit of it — and he hasn’t blown himself up yet,” the nephew said.
So based solely on hearsay the police hospitalized a man for psychiatric evaluation, confiscated his guns and ammunition, and destroyed about $5,000 worth of gunpowder (estimating about $100 for 8 pounds). Somewhere Sarah Brady and Frank Lautenberg are holding hands and smiling.
I believe the man is nuts based on the abundance of weaponry in his house. I have nothing against guns, of course, I just think that an unofficial limit would tend to appear at $20,000 worth, unless the man collects historic or rare guns. A gun is fine, a few isn’t really a problem. A few dozen is a bit concerning, but still tolerable. Now, if you buy a new gun after every argument with the wife (and argue at least once per month), I think an intervention might be justified. Perhaps it’s the few hundred pounds of gunpowder that looks really odd, because I don’t even know how you could possibly use that much, unless you build and launch model rockets in your free time (hilarious article in Popular Science, by the way). I do not even know how one buys that much gunpowder after 9/11.
Anyway, with that many guns, chances are the cops missed at least one. And the guy could have seemed like a full-fledged lunatic to the cops, in which case I would send him to an institution to get checked to make sure he at least is not suicidal.
Criminally insane.. but it’s not what you think.
From Alphapatriot comes this report of a man whose family
Chris,
A pound of gun powder will yield approximately 135 rounds of .30-06 Springfield ammo. I can go through that in a few hours. If I shot once a week & only shot 135 rounds of ’06 that’d come to 6,750 round sper year, which would of course be 50 pounds of gunpowder. Keep in midn that’s only shooting .30-06 & only 135 rounds once per week. Add pistol ammo, shotgun ammo & ammo for black powder guns & what I see isn’t unreasonable at all. Especially if he found a good deal on a few different types of powder. It’s like almost anything else: if you buy in bulk you usually save a little on the unit cost.
Add onto that something that most non handloaders wouldn’t be aware of; let’s say you find a good deal on IMR 4064 & buy 3 8 pound kegs of it. But after osme experimentation you discover another powder that does even better in your rifle so you stop using the IMR 4064. That leaves 23 pounds of the original 24 in storage. do that a few timees & it adds up.
But the underlying question isn’t how could he justify that much powder or a collection worth that much money, but who the hell are you to say that someone has excessive property of any type. The man was not hurting anyone. In fact it is only loosely alleged that he was a danger to himself. Before we get into arguing over how much property is too much for one person to own, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves who made us gods so that we could judge those things for anyone other than ourselves?
See I can think of a lot of things that aren’t justifiable: 4 wheel drives for people who live in the city, multiple cars per person, American Idol, etc… but luckily for those people who enjoy those things I realize what they do is not my business unless they directly try to interfere with my business. Having the potential to interfere doesn’t count either.
The man was harming no one; yet the gov felt fit to step in & destroy some of his property, confiscate the rest & send him to a medical detention facility. Instea dof asking what he needed with that many guns wouldn’t a better question be what do we need with that much government?