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Husband’s Firearms Confiscated Because Wife was Voluntarily Committed

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Lynette Phillips, 48, and her husband, David Phillips, 51, sit in their home in Upland, California on March 5, 2013. Lynette, a nurse, had to surrender three guns after spending two days in a mental hospital in December. (courtesy bloomberg.com)

We’ve been seen the California civilian disarmament squads being touted across the airwaves as doing the “good work” of keeping guns out of the hands of prohibited persons. But despite those efforts, all is not well in the Republic of California. While Bloomberg news might have you believe that only violent felons and other “evil people” are having their guns confiscated, the truth is that people who have done nothing wrong at all are having their firearms confiscated, too . . .

Due to an error in paperwork, Lynette Phillips’s husband David [above right] had to surrender three guns after spending two days in a mental hospital in December. Lynette was accidentally recorded as being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution when, in reality, she was there voluntarily to adjust her medication. Due to that one minor paperwork slip-up, the state of California (knowing that the woman’s husband had firearms, thanks to their firearms registration system) sent one of their busy confiscation crews to their house and separated both the woman and her husband from their heaters.

From The Blaze:

Phillips told TheBlaze the authorities arrived in unmarked cars Tuesday night around 8 p.m. Seeing as how she had never been in trouble with the law before, when they asked to enter, she said “sure,” not thinking to ask for a warrant. This gun confiscation law doesn’t go so far as to give officers warrants to enter property without permission.

Phillips explained that she and her husband were seated at their dining room table and questioned about the firearms. Phillips showed authorities where the weapons were located — a handgun in the top dresser drawer and two rifles in a safe in the garage. After Phillips unlocked the case in the garage, she said officers pulled her away from the guns and back into the house.

[…]

Phillips believes — and noted online reviews of the center should substantiate her claims — that the process at the psychiatric hospital was a joke. Bloomberg contacted the hospital for a response regarding Phillips’ admittance but had not received a reply.

Still, the issue of patients potentially being misdiagnosed speaks of the larger implications of the laws that might apply following such a hospital admittance.

Larger implications indeed. It’s a pretty troubling world we live in where one wrong note in a hospital record leads to a knock on your door in the middle of the night and the loss of  your Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Without any judicial oversight.

0 thoughts on “Husband’s Firearms Confiscated Because Wife was Voluntarily Committed”

  1. It’s particularly sad to see this in Massachusetts, where the revolution began. That these people have the gall to celebrate “Patriot’s Day” – April 19, Battles of Lexington and Concord – really, really makes me sick. What they are trying to do to the citizens of today is exactly what the British were trying to do to them in 1775. April 19 should be a day of demonstrations and protests by the “Patriots” of today.

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    • If it comes from Mass-a-chew-sh_t, you can believe it is Kennedy inspired. Nothing good comes from there. Not even maple syrup, it always has the flavor of having been shot through someones nostrils.

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  2. I say it once I say it 1000 fricken times. You can’t come in with out a warrant!!!!!!
    Be nice be civil, ask the court to contact you….
    Close and lock the Friggen door!!!!!!!!!!
    Ok I am going to go scream outside now…..

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  3. A nice juicy test case that violates the 4th, 5th, and 2nd amendments. the lawyers are licking their chops for some avacado covered litigation. The ACLU and the NRA on the same side for the first time in…. ever. nothing like militarized police confiscating guns without a warrant to unite the liberal and conservative wing of SCOTUS. Kalifornia could really not have done this better if they tried. keep on confiscating, boys, i am sure we will see you in court.

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  4. The POS hypocrite Mark Kelly living here in Arizona should thank his lucky stars that he’s still able to buy not only a 1911 but one of them scary black rifles…

    With the injuries to his wife, had they lived in good ole California…

    This could of happened to him!

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  5. Well at least they didn’t send the SWAT team in to bust down their door in the middle of the night…

    What I don’t get is how guys like Jared Laughner can slip between the cracks, yet 95% of the blocked sales are false positives. I guess that’s what you get when you let the government do, well, pretty much anything.

    Now aren’t stories like this one going to discourage people from seeking mental health care? What happens if the next mass shooter admits that he thought about seeking help but didn’t want to lose his firearms?

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    • Mandatory psych screening for every gun owner. And when someone gets a gun on the down low and goes on a rampage, psych screenings for everyone. And when that doesn’t work, martial law.

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  6. No comprende & close the door, when they come back with the Spanish person, nicht verstaen sie, & close the door Randy (wrong spelling I know)

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  7. Yea, a paperwork “error” uh huh. I have done extensive work with psych patients voluntary and involuntary, granted this isnt California but I always dot my i’s and cross my t’s

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    • California facilities are usually pretty tight lipped. I’ve tried often enough to get records, and they usaully ignore the subpoena, claiming that I need a “court order” or a release signed by the patient. (A subpoena is court order, but that doesn’t seem to matter.) Most won’t even tell you if they’ve even seen a patient with the name you are looking for. This is one of those “heads will roll” mistakes.

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  8. I would like to know how many times an LEO draws his gun solo. What percentage of the time do they call for backup before drawing their gun and confronting someone? I’d like to know the average number of cartridges “locked and loaded” when there is a police response because I’ll bet dollars to donuts that its a hell of a lot more than seven or ten or twenty or thirty. Why is it so important that there be no restrictions on how many rounds cops can load but its so important to restrict the number I can?
    My life is just as valuable as anyone else’s and that includes members of the esteemed praetorian corps.

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  9. speaking of ammo, Walmart in Mid MI had 500 round boxes of tulammo in .223, I dont shoot the steel cased stuff throuh my AR but I wish they had 9mm and .40. I know I could have bought a case and sold it for triple but I’m not a douch bag like the three guys that bought them ahead of me one of the three asked the first guy “what type of gun shoots this stuff?” they only had 2 cases left after that…

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  10. It is all about timing. Today, working in Oklahoma, random stop at WM. Bought 3 boxes of 9MM. 40 and 45 on the shelf too.

    I pick up 6 to 9 boxes weekly at my local WM. Check the website to see what came in, drop by and pick it up. 22lr, 223 and 9MM.

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  11. Just ran the math last night and figured out that the economics are massively in my favor on my almost-completed 5.45×39 AR. Basically, I can either shoot steel-jacketed 7N6 milsurp (see: wood crates in pic above) at steel-friendly ranges for 20c/round, or I can pull and replace the Russian bullets with 53gr Hornady HPBT pills (swaged from 0.224 down to 0.221 diameter) for a total cost of 38c/round.

    Compares rather favorably to the 80c-100c/round that 5.56 is going for, that’s for damn sure. And I don’t even have to scramble around looking for powder or primers.

    I’m using Hornady bullets because they did the same thing with a production run of 5.45×39 a while back, and if I want to do any of the training courses that insist on “factory loaded” ammo I’ll just tell them I bought a bunch of the Hornady 5.45…

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  12. I am a service member and respect people who truly earn the award, but in this case I feel that he did not earn the award. Why was he at a party in a notoriously bad part of town and carrying his weapon with him to a party were he might need it? As an Naval Officer he should have better judgement and stay away from situations like that. The story has to many holes in it as well. If I were his OIC I would have taken him to Captain’s Mast for being in a situation that he should have never gotten into in the first place. The charge would be: Actions unbecoming of an officer. On my ship we had an Ensign that put himself into similar situations of attending parties and hanging out in the bad side of town and he was discharged for actions unbecoming of an officer, because he was too much of a risk to himself and for the command and the integrity of the US Navy.

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  13. So does that mean that police are not allowed to discharge, or even carry, their weapons in a laboratory or a hospital? He seems to think that if you give a person a gun they will be fondling it constantly and it will just go off. The only reason a shot would be fired in such a “dangerous” location would be if there was a self defense scenario.

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  14. Ah but you missed the best part. Carl Hulse tweeted “Sen Feinstein apologizes to Sen Paul. Says he got her “dander up.” Probably a sentiment that will become more common in Senate” I am not sure if the person who wrote the tweet had it wrong or if Sen Feinstein is truly that senile. If it is true, it is probably past time for her to retire.

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  15. Newspaper polls like this are part of an agenda and are perfidious in the worst way. The best thing we can do is “blow them up”, as was done here, to show them for the snake oil they are.

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  16. I personally think that anyone running for POLITICAL OFFICE ought to be required to go through a psych eval – and have it made public.

    Bob

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  17. Oh – same thing goes for Lawyers, Prosecutors and LEOs too! All MUST take psych evals and they MUST be made public!

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  18. For those who still possess a coherent brain, When a supposedly law enforcement person comes to your house, and demands entry, all you have to do is ask what they are there for and then demand to see an actually search warrant, signed by a judge or magistrate. Nuff said. After that, what goes down makes you a rich person if the law is violated.
    Calif is in a world by itself. Those who sit in Sacramento, in a position of governance, believe they know what is good for all the people, not just for themselves. And they intend to prove it by screwing any person who goes against their political correctness. A dream world that is in existence because a few intend to dictate to the majority. Just like in New York and Chicago, they smoke the wrong stuff. Even their 9th circuit court is in a world of pipe dreams. A truer waste of tax dollars has never been spent like those fools in office or on the bench in Calif. The people who suffer the most in Calif are the responsible gun owners and the middle Americans. You are guilty already because the disingenuous legislature says so. Just ask them they will tell you. What ever happened to the State Referendum that would take this issue out of the legislature’s hands. That is what has to be done to stop all these morons in office with a personal agenda. To those living in Calif. Good luck. Let the law be enforced for the masses, not just the politically few chosen.

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