It’s easy to blame the loss of our gun rights completely on anti-gunners. After all, they make it clear that their end goal is strip gun rights from everyone which makes them a real threat to both your freedoms and the safety of your family.
But other people can, if unintentionally, still take away your gun rights in practice. What other people? How about negligent and/or overzealous (as in irrational) law enforcement officers.
A disturbing story out of Florida shows us an incident when this exact thing happened. John Crump writes,
Last Wednesday [08/14/2019], Jonathan Carpenter of Osceola County, Florida was sitting at home when a mail carrier knocked on his front door.
The postal carrier had Carpenter signed for a certified letter from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Carpenter signed for it, but he was confused because he was not expecting anything from the state. He quickly opened it and was floored.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services was notifying him that they have suspended his concealed handgun permit.
“On or about August 12th, 2019 in Osceola County, Florida, an injunction was entered restraining you from acts of domestic violence or acts of repeat violations,” the notice read.
The letter shocked Carpenter, who has never had a run-in with the law.
“When I opened the letter stating my CCW was suspended, I was shocked and confused,” Carpenter told AmmoLand News.
Figuring it was a mistake, Carpenter called the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to clear things up since he has never committed domestic violence against anyone. The representative told him he had to get a form from the Clerk of the Courts saying that there weren’t any actions against him.Carpenter headed to Clerk of the Court’s office to retrieve the required form. When he got there, the Clerk informed him that there was an injunction against a Jonathan Edward Carpenter.
mistake that the Sheriff’s office could quickly clear up went and spoke with him.
If you think that’s bad, it’s about to get worse. Even though the description of the man who was accused of committing crimes didn’t even remotely match our CCW holder, the police still said that Carpenter had to surrender his firearms, and he will need to go to court to prove that he isn’t the accused drug dealer that the original complaint was about.
Yes, you read that correctly. Totally innocent Jonathan Carpenter had his guns taken away without due process and has to go to court to prove that he is innocent because, apparently, he is presumed guilty already.
This is outrageous, but this is exactly the kind of nonsense that too many legal gun owners must deal with in our society and why we must be vigilant to hold our law enforcement and state attorneys accountable to uphold the Constitution above any nonsensical state laws or “standard police procedures”.
My GOD, what kind of country do we live in. We MUST get rid of those opposed to weapons!
What do you propose to get rid of them, shoot them?
sue their sorry ass into poverty
Recce1, obviously Gary was not suggesting that we shoot anyone. What I believe he meant was we need to remove from government anyone who in their longing to eliminate guns ignore the Constitution. I couldn’t agree more. Certainly, take away guns from someone who has committed a felony or has threatened domestic violence. But, an individual shouldn’t have to defend himself against mistaken identity.
In the case described here, it sounds like he was forced into court to prove he wasn’t the felon. Doesn’t that sound like he’s considered guilty until proven innocent? The presumption of innocence has been around for centuries. It’s nothing new.
good idea.. do we need to get hunting tags to take out scum?? or can we just overhear them talk commie crap and shoot them right there ??
We are now dealing w/ the idiots of today as all the older generation w/ common sense that fought for this country in the 1900’s are now but gone. We have a uneducated, entitled population of A Holes making decisions today. God save the USA!!!
Some are VERY educated, in liberal/socialist/communist ideology. sadly, education doesn’t guarantee wisdom.
absolutely true… just look at how many trotskites are professors there… LOL
I am very suspiciious of tis event. It needs to be resolved before any gun confiscation.
We are going to hear a lot more of these stories. This is what happens when you ignore the Constitution and the due process it guarantees. What makes the situation worse is that there are a LOT of police officers who do not think you should own a gun or have one anywhere around you – whether the law says you can or not.
Ed Love, that’s because those Police Officers want to be able to flex their muscles WITHOUT any immediate repercussions like they did with Rodney King years ago. We used to call that type bullies.
Anyone know what kinds of actions this man could have taken ahead of time to prevent this kind of thing from happening? I just want to know what kind of steps I can take before something like this happens to me.
Of course like the law side has always looked at things GUILTY UNTIL YOU PROVE YOUR SELF INNOCENT …
Yep. Too often those in law enforcement put people into one of 3 categories: 1) fellow LEO’s; 2) felons, 3) potential felons.
If there was a mistake, and a citizen loss RIGHTS without due process; could that lead to a suit in court with payments for the loss of rights and for “pain and suffering”?
All too often jurisdictions claim sovereign immunity from official misconduct, even by the courts. We need an amendment limiting such immunity at ALL levels.
These red flag laws need some restraints put on them. If someone is innocent and their guns are taken anyway there needs to be just compensation. First and foremost the firearms are returned in as good working order as when they were confiscated. Secondly the gov’t must PAY 10 times the worth of said firearms for the pain, humiliation, and suffering, hopefully causing due diligence before hap-hazardly destroying someone’s guaranteed constitutional rights.
It’s time to force through a constitutional amendment that governments at all levels be held responsible for such mistakes or denials of Due Process. That means all legal and court costs, denied use, damaged or destroyed property, lost wages, and compensatory damages, along with criminal charges if warranted.
In addition, civil asset forfeiture at all levels must be stop. Injuries or deaths from unwarranted or mistaken no knock warrants must be prosecuted as negligent homicide or worse.
Only then can we citizens take back our God-given, or Natural Rights that are protected from government infringement by the Constitution.
Where’s the great ACLU? Oh, that’s right, they don’t represent law abiding citizens who have been wronged by the government without due process. They only represent communist causes.
Codeblue, I often refer to it as the AACLU, Anti-American Civil Liberties Union. They seem to have forgotten that principles actually don’t mean SQUAT if they, the AACLU, forget to defend the right people.
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