adamsreeftank
03-05-2008, 03:24 AM
In the paper that is. Front page no less. Sorry if this is a dupe.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_8447560?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com&nclick_check=1
8446
8447
An overdue farewell to arms
By John Simerman
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 03/04/2008 03:07:29 AM PST
PINOLE -- A heavy afternoon rain blurs the sky as three black SUVs pull up across from a one-story stucco house on Pinole Valley Road.
The man inside just turned 60 and recently was placed under a psychiatric hold as a suicide risk, one of the five state agents says. Records show that he owns 15 guns, including two assault weapons. Under state law, he must give them up for five years. He has not.
"This guy could have a pure disdain for police," says Special Agent Supervisor John Marsh.
"It's almost like the boy with the Cracker Jack box. When we get to the door, we never know what surprise is going to be inside."
What they find, after he lets them in, are handguns, rifles and shotguns strewn about several rooms, others locked away in a garage gun safe. There are 58 weapons in all, many of them loaded, Marsh says. The man is agitated, but the agents settle him down. An hour later, they shuttle the firearms to their vehicles, barrels up, then drive off.
"Pretty typical" says Ignatius Chinn, a veteran firearms agent. Next stop: the home of a Richmond man. "He likes to fight, likes to hit his wife, likes to show off his guns," says one agent as he briefs the others.
Such seizures from "armed and prohibited" gun owners are growing more common statewide, officials said, after the launch last year of a new state computer system that links gun ownership records with a database of people who are banned from keeping them.
The results of an early sampling were remarkable: Nearly 70,000 people statewide -- and more than 15,000 in the Bay Area -- either kept their guns in violation of state law, or records of their sale or transfer were never entered properly, estimates showed.
With the new Armed and Prohibited Persons System, or APPS, the number of state investigations has risen nearly fourfold, from about 50 a month to 190, officials say.
Its main value has been to identify gun owners just recently barred from keeping their weapons -- those most prone to violence, said a firearms researcher who is helping the state agency.
"When you're talking about people who've just been served with a restraining order or committed crimes, a person's risk of committing crime number two is highest shortly thereafter," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency room doctor and head of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis. "These are precisely the kind of people we want to not have guns."
Wintemute has helped the agents prioritize which types of barred gun owners they should seek first, since the numbers grow too fast to keep up. State figures show that nearly 800 people are added to the state system each month. Felony convictions are the No. 1 reason, followed by domestic violence restraining orders.
The system, created from 2002 legislation, now holds nearly 11,000 names, although the actual number of armed and prohibited people is several times greater, officials say.
Federal and state law bans gun ownership for people convicted of a variety of felonies. It also bars drug addicts, those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or subject to restraining orders. Those convicted of violent misdemeanors cannot own or keep firearms for 10 years. People taken into custody as a danger to themselves or others must give up guns for at least five years.
A court process allows gun owners such as Pinole man to appeal.
According to a study comparing people who were convicted of violent misdemeanors before and after a gun ban went into effect for them in 1991, those denied the purchases of handguns had a 25 percent to 30 percent lower risk of committing later gun crimes, Wintemute said.
"We're seeing solid scientific evidence get translated into public policy," he said. "This may well be a big part of the solution to a part of the problem."
In December, a six-week statewide sweep netted 541 handguns, rifles and assault weapons. Since this past summer, the agents have confiscated nearly 1,800 weapons, including 145 assault weapons, officials say. The sweep last year focused on violent felons. The next big sweep, the agents said, likely will focus on domestic violence cases.
Many of the armed and prohibited are belligerent, the agents say. Others are merely ignorant.
Among those who have needed educating are some local police departments, agents said. During the summer sweep, suspects often had given up their guns to police, but the agencies failed to log them in the system. Some courts also have lagged in entering data on restraining orders and mental holds, Attorney General Jerry Brown said.
"We're taking in guns ourselves, but the main idea is to multiply your force by working closely with local government," he said.
"Citizens have a right to bear arms, but not citizens adjudicated insane, or mentally incompetent, or guilty of a felony. We're aggressively enforcing it."
Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said he hopes the technology puts an end to a nettlesome problem. Too often, he said, people unaware that past convictions barred them from owning guns would buy one and not be stopped, then face state enforcement. He said the group has "no real objection" to the system.
"The law has to be obeyed," he said. "If you don't like the law, you work to change it."
The 30 agents also stake out guns shows in California and Nevada. Weapons they recover are incinerated.
"As soon as we burn 'em," Chinn said, "more come in."
Reach John Simerman at 925-943-8072 or jsimerman@bayareanewsgroup.com.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_8447560?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com&nclick_check=1
8446
8447
An overdue farewell to arms
By John Simerman
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 03/04/2008 03:07:29 AM PST
PINOLE -- A heavy afternoon rain blurs the sky as three black SUVs pull up across from a one-story stucco house on Pinole Valley Road.
The man inside just turned 60 and recently was placed under a psychiatric hold as a suicide risk, one of the five state agents says. Records show that he owns 15 guns, including two assault weapons. Under state law, he must give them up for five years. He has not.
"This guy could have a pure disdain for police," says Special Agent Supervisor John Marsh.
"It's almost like the boy with the Cracker Jack box. When we get to the door, we never know what surprise is going to be inside."
What they find, after he lets them in, are handguns, rifles and shotguns strewn about several rooms, others locked away in a garage gun safe. There are 58 weapons in all, many of them loaded, Marsh says. The man is agitated, but the agents settle him down. An hour later, they shuttle the firearms to their vehicles, barrels up, then drive off.
"Pretty typical" says Ignatius Chinn, a veteran firearms agent. Next stop: the home of a Richmond man. "He likes to fight, likes to hit his wife, likes to show off his guns," says one agent as he briefs the others.
Such seizures from "armed and prohibited" gun owners are growing more common statewide, officials said, after the launch last year of a new state computer system that links gun ownership records with a database of people who are banned from keeping them.
The results of an early sampling were remarkable: Nearly 70,000 people statewide -- and more than 15,000 in the Bay Area -- either kept their guns in violation of state law, or records of their sale or transfer were never entered properly, estimates showed.
With the new Armed and Prohibited Persons System, or APPS, the number of state investigations has risen nearly fourfold, from about 50 a month to 190, officials say.
Its main value has been to identify gun owners just recently barred from keeping their weapons -- those most prone to violence, said a firearms researcher who is helping the state agency.
"When you're talking about people who've just been served with a restraining order or committed crimes, a person's risk of committing crime number two is highest shortly thereafter," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency room doctor and head of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis. "These are precisely the kind of people we want to not have guns."
Wintemute has helped the agents prioritize which types of barred gun owners they should seek first, since the numbers grow too fast to keep up. State figures show that nearly 800 people are added to the state system each month. Felony convictions are the No. 1 reason, followed by domestic violence restraining orders.
The system, created from 2002 legislation, now holds nearly 11,000 names, although the actual number of armed and prohibited people is several times greater, officials say.
Federal and state law bans gun ownership for people convicted of a variety of felonies. It also bars drug addicts, those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or subject to restraining orders. Those convicted of violent misdemeanors cannot own or keep firearms for 10 years. People taken into custody as a danger to themselves or others must give up guns for at least five years.
A court process allows gun owners such as Pinole man to appeal.
According to a study comparing people who were convicted of violent misdemeanors before and after a gun ban went into effect for them in 1991, those denied the purchases of handguns had a 25 percent to 30 percent lower risk of committing later gun crimes, Wintemute said.
"We're seeing solid scientific evidence get translated into public policy," he said. "This may well be a big part of the solution to a part of the problem."
In December, a six-week statewide sweep netted 541 handguns, rifles and assault weapons. Since this past summer, the agents have confiscated nearly 1,800 weapons, including 145 assault weapons, officials say. The sweep last year focused on violent felons. The next big sweep, the agents said, likely will focus on domestic violence cases.
Many of the armed and prohibited are belligerent, the agents say. Others are merely ignorant.
Among those who have needed educating are some local police departments, agents said. During the summer sweep, suspects often had given up their guns to police, but the agencies failed to log them in the system. Some courts also have lagged in entering data on restraining orders and mental holds, Attorney General Jerry Brown said.
"We're taking in guns ourselves, but the main idea is to multiply your force by working closely with local government," he said.
"Citizens have a right to bear arms, but not citizens adjudicated insane, or mentally incompetent, or guilty of a felony. We're aggressively enforcing it."
Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said he hopes the technology puts an end to a nettlesome problem. Too often, he said, people unaware that past convictions barred them from owning guns would buy one and not be stopped, then face state enforcement. He said the group has "no real objection" to the system.
"The law has to be obeyed," he said. "If you don't like the law, you work to change it."
The 30 agents also stake out guns shows in California and Nevada. Weapons they recover are incinerated.
"As soon as we burn 'em," Chinn said, "more come in."
Reach John Simerman at 925-943-8072 or jsimerman@bayareanewsgroup.com.