Earlier this week, I put up a bit in an H&I Fires post about the NRA seeking information about *possible* gun confiscations occuring in Greensburg. I opined then that it was more likely that LEOs were securing loose weapons found during search and rescue operations, and that the weapons were being taken for safe-keeping and would be returned to their owners.
I'm a Life Member of the NRA, but I will freely admit the breathless nature of NRA-ILA emails leaves me cold. Something else that leaves me cold is the precipitous way the gun boards will sink, and cling to, the darkest options in a scenario, and mutter darkly about Leviathan, just because it might *possibly* be that's the case. Certainly they can be right like a broken clock is right, but.
And *where* you live matters, certainly. If you know you live in gun-hostile country, your experience will certainly be different than that of us in here in my neck of the Kansas woods, where the gun collectors in my Rotary club will pop a trunk in the parking lot and admire new acquisitions. And the Chief of Police, who is a member, doesn't bat an eye.
Anyway - given the prominence in the online gun-owning community to the NRA's request for information (and I put it up, too) I think I should give equal prominience to this piece from the Adjutant General of Kansas. And I'll probably run it again, in smaller form, on Monday, to catch the high-traffic day.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 11, 2007 No. 07-072Guns Recovered in Storm Now Being Returned to Greensburg Residents
Local law enforcement authorities have been returning weapons recovered after the tornado to their rightful owners in the Greensburg area.
Following the storm, guns were found throughout the city and law enforcement determined it best to collect the weapons to ensure everyone’s safety and to ensure the safekeeping of the property for the owners. The total number of guns collected was 349. Thursday, 140 were returned to residents who came to claim them. Friday, 38 firearms were returned.
“The reason we took the firearms was to protect personal property because no one knew what was going on here immediately following the storm,” said Vernon Chinn, Pratt County Sheriff. “As law enforcement officers, we knew the potential of what could happen if the firearms fell into the wrong hands. The number one stolen property is firearms. We just didn’t want them falling into the wrong hands.”
“In the process of returning some weapons we have located stolen firearms,” Chinn noted. “A person may have legally purchased the gun at a gun show, but it was stolen, and in that case we want to return it to the rightful owner.”
Any residents who still have not claimed their firearm should go to the gun trailer located east of Davis Park on the north side of U.S. 54. The trailer is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until all guns are returned.
I forwarded this to the NRA, as well. Heh. I've got *no juice at all* with those people. I get better service from my Democrat Member of Congress than I do the NRA. But I'm letting my ego get in the way there, a little bit, methinks. I haven't ambushed Wayne LaPierre or Chris Cox in a dark, wind-swept parking lot like I did Ms. Boyda.
But then, Mr. LaPierre might be armed. Of course, here in Kansas, so might Ms. Boyda...
I said *might* people. I'm *not* asserting Ms. Boyda packs heat. Just that she legally could be.
The whole central point of concealed carry.
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