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4th Cir.: Officers acted reasonably in taking from and keeping guns of plaintiff who threatened violence against others as a part of his own suicide

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Plaintiff called a suicide hotline and said he would probably go to work at the fire department and take out others before shooting himself. Police were dispatched to his house and found him loading his car. They approached him with guns drawn and handcuffed him without incident. They searched his house and found a gun safe and every interior door locked and survivalist literature everywhere inside but the bathroom. They pressured him for keys and the combination and seized lots of guns. He was taken to a psychiatric hospital and left. He was not arrested, but his weapons were confiscated. Two years later, he sought return of the guns, and he did not get them back. He sued for the guns, but not over his own detention, and the officers were found to have acted reasonably...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 05, 2008 (boomark / email).