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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.

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66 COMMENTS

    • Just from the pic, she made herself a target. She is over weight, therefore she must have the dreaded “…fat woman attitude…”, her husband is skinny, makes for dangerous sex, she could in certain ways smother him to death. She is holding unidentified papers in her hand. This is a true threat, as we don’t know what is printed there. She lives in what MAY be a trailer. It doesn’t matter if that is correct or not, it is the perception that is important. Taking ALL of this into account she has proven herself to be a threat. Tongue in cheek implied.

  1. In the future, the fact that you want to own a firearm will be proof that you are mentally unstable and shouldn’t be allowed to own one. Catch 22.

  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…..

    • I’ve told the cops I dont consent to searches of my car or person countless times before; it rarely stops them. All it does is gives you the opportunity to make a motion to suppress evidence when you go to trial. But even then a judge could deny the motion. I’ve gotten in the habit of not answering the door bell if i’m not expecting someone, and when I go out carrying a combination locked briefcase.

  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.

  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!

  5. An involuntary commitment pursuant to 5150 is a mandatory statutory report to the authorities by the facility. Voluntary admits are not reported, or at least are not supposed to be. My fear that they were now going after voluntary admits has been assuaged, because if they were, that would be a MAJOR issue involving HIPPA, and the proper interpretation of the reporting statute.

    What is also bizarre, to me any way, is that in California it is not illegal to commit suicide. (Most states it is still a crime.) Consequently, the state should have no right to confiscate firearms unless you are a threat of harm to others.

    • Mark this is what I am saying!!!
      They are keeping records and going after it all!!

      Ok Nick you owe me a drink.. I need one about now…

    • I thought it was only a crime to ATTEMPT suicide. If you commit suicide (assuming you’re successful), who are they going to charge?

    • >> What is also bizarre, to me any way, is that in California it is not illegal to commit suicide. (Most states it is still a crime.)

      There’s no state in which suicide is a crime according to the laws on the books. Assisting suicide is a crime, yes. Committing it can only be very tentatively be argued as a common law crime, but I very much doubt it would actually fly in any state.

  6. 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?

    • 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.

      • This was introduced as one of the many amendments to Illinois’ proposed CCW legislation this afternoon, folks! There is no stoop too low for them to get where they want to go. A nation wide disarmament of the peasants.

        Yes, it was voted down, but they are showing their true colors. Chalk up another volunteer for the barricades. And I’m afraid that time is coming. If the courts don’t stop this insanity, and soon.

    • “Well at least they didn’t send the SWAT team in to bust down their door in the middle of the night…”
      Not yet they don’t. That’s probably on deck/

    • When I read this I immediately thought of the subway guy for some reason. He’s the first Jared that comes to mind. LOL

    • The sheriff refused request for intervention because luaghners motherwas a county employee according to some accounts.

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

  8. 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

    • 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.

  9. what should worry everyone is that someone who needs help will not seek it because they’re worried that a mistake will lead to their guns being taken away.

    i consider that to be an unintended consequence of some of these laws. instead of seeking help people will avoid it.

    liberals are idiots.

    • Vets had better start to worry. We are on the hit list.” OH PTSD, well now you can’t own a firearm, even though it was brought about as a result of U.S. sending you into harms way.” So sayeth the govt.

      • If they didn’t own a dog then that new guy on the team is responsible for bringing one along to shoot “just because.”

    • HEY that’s a Maryland thing. Only our cops get to shoot dogs. And only if the door they’re busting down belongs to an innocent person. That’s the law buddy.

      • No happened in St. Louis MI last fall, Cop’s story “I rolled up to the stray golden retriever in the road, got out and he charged me I had to defend myself” Old lady sitting in her window across street said “officer got out of car walked towards dog in its own yard pulled out his side arm and put 3 or 4 shots into it”

  10. 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.

  11. Now the REAL fun will begin for these folks–trying to get the guns back. Especially in urban areas, police entities are infamous for refusing to release a confiscated firearm without “proof of ownership,” and the receipt they issued when they seized the weapon is not good enough. Oakland and San Francisco have been sued for refusing to return arms even when the Ca.DOJ signs a letter authorizing the release–or they dilly dally around long enough for the letter to expire, forcing the hapless gun owner to get another one.

    • Plus no care, no oil, no wiping off the fingerprints, if you do get it back it will not look like the same weapon…

  12. NEVER let the cops in without a warrant. NEVER!!! NEVER!!! NEVER!!! And never tell them what you have… The cops may be good guys…but when they are given orders…if they disobey, they could lose their job and ability to pay their mortgages and feed their families…they have to do their job for fear of this…even if it means violating your Constitutional rights.

    Have a good lawyer.

  13. Where are our police readers? Comments? Thoughts?

    Where are the law and order types to tell us we’re overreacting?

  14. Maybe there is a reason that state “education” systems are so ready to categorize every young boy who acts like a young boy as autistic. Under California law I would imagine a lot of parents will have this same crew of merry gun grabbers showing up to get their guns because they have spared the rod and spoiled the child. There also may be a method to the Democrat’s madness of spreading “crazy money” around from the Social Security Disability fund to the teen mothers and grandparents of all of the suddenly autistic children we have in meth ridden rural areas and decaying inner cities. Kalifornia and other progressive states can get an early start on adding to the prohibited list of gun owners.

  15. If you are a Leo, agent, detective etc. and your significant other, relative living with you in the same household is 5150. Are you also required to surrender your firearms. The correlation to this is there is a high % in this profession to have domestic violence, divorce, restraining orders & mental collapse.

  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

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

  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.

  19. most cops are good, reasonable people. but never let them into your house without a warrant. period.

    there are so many laws today, that anyone might be breaking one and not even know it.

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