Posted on 12/08/2005 7:45:48 AM PST by Smogger
To the dismay of gun owners, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is now charging $54 to return firearms seized during arrests or searches - even if the gun was legally owned and not used in a crime. The Los Angeles County Supervisors recently approved the fee, which they say would help recover $27,000 the county spends each year storing guns.
People recovering stolen firearms, however, would not have to pay, according to county officials.
Sam Paredes, executive director of the Gun Owners of California, said Los Angeles County was "taking full advantage of state law in order to screw the public."
Paredes was referring to Assembly Bill 2431, passed in September 2004, which requires police to catalog guns and store them for at least one year before the agency is allowed to destroy them. It also allows agencies to charge a storage fee.
Paredes said no other city or county in California was charging the storage fee.
In a report to county supervisors, Sheriff's officials say it costs them about $54 to conduct background checks and to store and process guns.
"It's the same thing as impounding a vehicle," said Lt. Dan Cruz.
About 500 guns would be returned each year, according to the report. It was not known how many guns had been collected since the fee was enacted Nov. 22.
At an area Sheriff's storage facility - deputies asked its location be kept secret - police store thousands of guns, each of which must be carefully catalogued and labeled. Many are never claimed.
In addition to the storage fee, the gun's owner must pay the U.S. Department of Justice another $20 for a background check, according to the text of AB 2431. Each gun after the first one is $3.
Officers at the Covina and Baldwin Park police departments, for example, said those cities do not charge a fee to return guns, although Baldwin Park is considering one.
Members of a legal office specializing in firearms law called the fee an "illegal tax."
"They have to handle evidence all the time. It's part of their job. If they take your clothes (during an investigation), they don't charge you to get your clothes back?" said John Mustafa, a legislative analyst for Trutanich-Michell LLP in Long Beach, which has handled cases for the National Rifle Association.
The firm is considering sending a letter to the sheriff's office asking to suspend the fee, he said.
But he guessed it would take a new state law or a class-action lawsuit to stop deputies from charging the $54, he said.
Gun owners practicing at the Triple BBB Clays Shotgun Sports Park at the Whittier Narrows were livid when they heard about the fee.
Some owned dozens of sport-shooting firearms.
"I would say it's communism," said Gene Fister, 70. "But taking something that belongs to someone else and charging them to get it back -- it's worse. It's stealing."
Ben Baeder can be reached by e-mail at ben.baeder or by phone at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2703.
No kidding Gene. Stealing under color of authoriy. But hey. What else is new?
I do not understand why posessing a firearm that was once used in a crime is so bad.
If the PD confiscates a gun and finds that it had once been held by a criminal when robbing a convenience store, that means that you cannot own the gun- which is why they do background checks on the firearm.
This is New Age hoodoo or Middle Ages fears of witchcraft.
But think if this idea of charging people to get backk what was theirs all along catches on, then they can take your car for a stopsign violation and charge you a few thousand, or turn you out of your home and charge you tens of thousands to get it back. The LA revenue shortfall will be a thing of the past!
This is total bulls***.
Someone needs to not pay and SUE the bastards for the gun back.
Creepy a-hole futhermuckers.
Government thievery at its best.
Imagine your car was towed from your drive way to a government holding facility, and when they were done with it, and they found nothing, they presented you a bill for $800 for the storage and towing fees incurred because of their investigation.
Only in CA... 
Wow. And I live in MA.
Where can a free man live now, where he doesn't have to be a lawyer to own a gun?
Where can a free man live now, where he doesn't have to be a lawyer (or, a TV personality, newspaper columnist, entertainer, ect.) to own a gun?
Where do they "store" them? Each gun has a room at Holiday Inn?
FreeePeee!
But did we expect anything else?
Too bad we are STILL too civilized to do what we SHOULD be doing to rectify things.
How about who-ever has to pay this fee makes a private persons arrest on the property deputy for GRAND THEFT GUN which is a felony in California. Then files a report with the D.A.'s office. When no satisfaction is received from the D.A.'s Deputy, then a FEDERAL lawsuit with the F.B.I. involved.
But the fools of L.A. County elected this clown Lee Baca. He was a jerk when I went through the L.A. Co. Sheriff's academy in 1969 and he was an instructor then. I did not vote for him.
Colorado, for one. Private sales are still legal, though the two largest newspapers forbid advertising of same, no registration of anything, open carry is theoretically legal and you can have loaded handguns in your car without a permit (except in Denver), it's a Shall-Issue state, there are no storage laws, no purchase limits, no bans on specific types of ammo (AP, tracer, etc)... although we're being overrun by Kali commies, and so the laws are slowly changing against us. But this is the present state of affairs here.
"Where can a free man live now, where he doesn't have to be a lawyer (or, a TV personality, newspaper columnist, entertainer, ect.) to own a gun?"
Vermont. But who the hell wants to live in that place?
Alaska, but don't bring a little gun, you'll just make that bear mad.
Hey, they just pull a number out of the air and you're supposed to believe it. Just another way to get money out of the taxpayer.....it's all really theirs, ya know.
$27,000 the county spends each year storing guns. Where do they "store" them? Each gun has a room at Holiday Inn?
Actually, it's probably the salary of the county clerk who minds the gun vault...gotta take away all these bad guns, oops now we gotta hire someone to babysit them...
R3
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