Some gun confiscation rumors are false. However gun owners are having weapons or permits taken, sometimes because of something someone else did which involved no violence or genuine threat of violence.
Gun sites are running stories saying New York is confiscating guns based on prescription drug records, but give no identifying details or cites. I tend to discount these rumors, primarily because of ironclad HIPPA medical privacy laws that would seem to make it impossible for a state to get blanket access to prescription records. If New York tried, certainly the ACLU or EFF would immediately file lawsuits trying to block them. Getting access to millions of prescription records then cross referencing them with gun owners would be a seriously complicated task (and I say that as a database programmer) plus I don’t see how NY could get access to the script records because of HIPPA.
But, some gun owners now definitely are having guns taken from them, and not for anything they did.
California seizes guns as owners lose right to keep arms.
Justice Department agents assembled outside a ranch-style house in a suburb east of Los Angeles. They were looking for a gun owner who’d recently spent two days in a mental hospital.
They knocked on the door and asked to come in. About 45 minutes later, they came away peacefully with three firearms.
I have a big problem with this. A two day hospitalization in a mental hospital does not mean someone is dangerously unstable or potentially violent. The whole thing smacks of Big Brother, especially since they have seized guns from husbands whose wives were hospitalized. There’s also the issue of selective enforcement. I’m guessing that any guns in Britney Spears’ house have not yet been seized since because of the publicity that would ensue plus she has battalions of lawyers at her disposal. (I’m not saying she has guns and applaud her recovery from serious mental issues. I’m using her as an example.)
New York dad’s pistol license suspended over something his 10-year-old son said
A New York father has had his firearms all but confiscated after the Suffolk County Pistol License Bureau suspended his pistol license indefinitely over a perceived threat made by his 10-year-old son and two of his classmates at school.
The “threat” involved a paint gun, water gun, and BB gun. Again, this is gigantic overreach by law enforcement and won’t do a thing to stop gun violence. People who did nothing wrong are being punished because of something someone else did, a worrying trend indeed.