State authorities asking gun owners to allow guns to be test fired.

[TexasRifleman]

40 out of 60 showed? I think the letter may have been written a bit stronger than what the article suggests.

Or people in general are a lot dumber than those that regularly read gun forums. That's my bet......

 

[presspuller]

I have tried my honest best to look at this from both sides and to the life of me I can not see how this test firing is going to help catch the guys that did this.
If you say it narrows down the field of guys with .40s, does it really? What if the scum was say a truck driver and was passing through and is now a thousand miles away, are they gonna come to NC and do the same test here to "narrow down the field"?
I do hope they catch the vermin that did this and hang their heads on a fence post but seems the cops are wasting time.

 

[Halo]

This is equivalent to sending out a letter requesting all men in the vicinity of a rape come down to the courthouse and provide a DNA sample.

 

[SCKimberFan]

What if the scum ... was passing through and is now a thousand miles away

This is a lot more likey than not.

BTW, I have kids and I would NOT submit to this without a court order.

 

[Happiness Is A Warm Gun]

This is equivalent to sending out a letter requesting all men in the vicinity of a rape come down to the courthouse and provide a DNA sample.

This was done in UK or Australia. I will see if I can dig up a link. Not just in certain vicinity it was the entire town. Later there was a massive legal battle because the government refused to destroy the records. Their argument was the samples needed to be destroyed but the records, the actual dna fingerprints could be held indefinitely. Essentially the start of a nationwide DNA database.

 

[Bobarino]

my question is; if the gun owners are cleared, what happens to the bullets/casings? are they destroyed or discarded? or are they kept on file for ever and ever?

Bobby

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

This is equivalent to sending out a letter requesting all men in the vicinity of a rape come down to the courthouse and provide a DNA sample

been done AND IT GOT SOMEONE
http://a.abcnews.com/TheLaw/comments?type=story&id=3893039
bet that guy didn't realize the harm he was doing the revolution.

it may be a shock to some of you but some criminals are really stupid will keep a gun. in this case i wonder if it mighta been a younger person. god forbid a kid using daddys gun. in that case the gun may surface and ruin several folks day

 

[Halo]

Quote:
This is equivalent to sending out a letter requesting all men in the vicinity of a rape come down to the courthouse and provide a DNA sample.

This was done in UK or Australia. I will see if I can dig up a link. Not just in certain vicinity it was the entire town. Later there was a massive legal battle because the government refused to destroy the records. Their argument was the samples needed to be destroyed but the records, the actual dna fingerprints could be held indefinitely. Essentially the start of a nationwide DNA database.

I've heard about that too. I'm pretty sure the debate over a national DNA database is in the UK. Though, maybe it's happening in Australia too. Even more disturbing than a proposal like that is the number of people who will pull out the old "if you have nothing to hide then what's the problem?" rationale in defense of it.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1381

 

[Halo]

This is equivalent to sending out a letter requesting all men in the vicinity of a rape come down to the courthouse and provide a DNA sample

been done AND IT GOT SOMEONE
http://a.abcnews.com/TheLaw/comments...ory&id=3893039
bet that guy didn't realize the harm he was doing the revolution.

So as long as we can say "IT GOT SOMEONE" does that make it A-OK in your book? Why don't we just detain the entire population and release each one after he proves his innocence?

 

[WayneConrad]

That this could help has (1) not been demonstrated, and (2) is not sufficient reason to voluntarily permit this degree of government intrusion into such a critical aspect of the people's civil rights.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4161983.stm


takes 30 seconds i'm too old for crime anymore. heck in va every felon gets tested and its getting results.

heck this give the real manly heroes of the revolution a chance to show their mettle. instead of internet preening.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

so many? was there someone besides me?

 

[HIcarry]

what ever were they thinking! just because some one gunned down 2 kids these innocent folks were willing to allow the cops to narrow their search. how dare they! i bet some of em had kids and let a pathetic thing like that influence em. no wonder the revolution is flagging. be strong revolutionaries! someday folks will see how not cooperating in trying to find this shooter is for the greater good. it is up to visonaries such as yourselves to lead the way. vive le cause.

You seem to miss a couple of pertinet issues here:
First and foremost, it is very doubtful that any of the law-abiding, registered owners of the guns tested are the killers.
Second, even if one of the (until now) law-abiding, registered gun owners were the killer, do you think he (or she) would turn in that gun?
Third: the fact that a letter was written to gun owners seems to indicate a registry of guns despite various provisions against keeping such records.
Fourth: The fact that police will be visiting gun owners who didn't "voluntarily" submit their guns for testing seems to indicate a system where "innocent until proven guilty" may not be as highly regarded as some would hope. The possibility that those "revolutionaries" who didn't submit their guns will now come under greater scrutiny and could at some point be forced to comply with testing absent any other evidence of wrong doing also seems to fly in the face of the Fourth Amendment, but who cares right? As long as the police are doing something to find the killers, it's alright with you. Forget that the likelyhood of success from this testing is minimal; forget that it is the law abiding citizen they are harassing if they didn't submit voluntarily; forget that it seems to trample one of the basic tenents of our jurisprudence; oh, and don't forget that it seems a possibility that it could lead down the path to further infringements of our Fourth Amendment rights.

 

[Halo]

No thanks. I'll take a society burdened by the inescapable fact that criminals will sometimes go unpunished rather than a society that obtains zero crime by making the entire country into one gigantic penitentiary.

 

[3pairs12]

You mean thats its not guilty until proven innocent. It was down some back raod so I would be willing to bet that it wasn't a long hull trucker. Maybe I would have been one of the dumb ones but also growing up in a "small town" I realize that sometimes law enforcement needs the help of honest citizens. I highly doubt it was a test to see if a voluntary gun confiscation would go over as somebody else stated. If it takes my name of one list and puts it on another than so be it. It was voluntary. You don't show next time maybe it won't be voluntary. It could end up a knock at your door with the warrant.
As if big brother doesn't troll this site.

 

[ZeSpectre]

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said some 60 letters were sent out to registered owners of .40-caliber handguns, asking them to voluntarily submit their weapons for testing on Saturday and Sunday at the Okfuskee County Courthouse at Okemah.

“We’ll be checking on them,” Brown said, as well as the 15 or so registered gun owners who did not show up for the test firings.

And there you have it, the REAL point to gun registration.

 

[Huddog]

Sounds like either a desperate attempt to find a lead in a horrible case or as the my conspiracy side says a way to start a .40 caliber registry.

 

[3pairs12]

My eternal optomism that has burned me more than once makes me want to believe that this is only for the investigation at hand.

 

[Halo]

Assuming they are indeed only trying to solve the case at hand, I have to wonder what investigator truly believes a perpetrator in a crime like this is going to just walk down to the courthouse and hand over the murder weapon for positive identification. At that point he might as just well confess.

 

[RoadkingLarry]

Here is a scan of the letter that was sent out.



My question is -Just how "voluntary" is this. and just what is meant by

“We’ll be checking on them,” Brown said, as well as the 15 or so registered gun owners who did not show up for the test firings.

Particularly the "registered gun owners" part. We do NOT have an (official) hand gun registry in Oklahoma.

The letter also states that if you no longer have the handgun be prepared to tell them who does...What if you don't know, Sold it to a dealer at a gun show or a FTF at a gun show...

 

[Archie]

I've got a nickel says this is a case of "We've got to DO something."

Unless this whole thing is a very clever plan to distract the suspects while the police move in, it strikes me this case is going nowhere. Unfortunately, when 'media' experts have no better news, they are happy to pick on law enforcement for not solving crimes. Elected officials get their underthings in a knot when the 'media' starts focusing on the 'dedication and efficiency' of both the law enforcement agencies and the elected officials who oversee those agencies. So the elected start the headless chicken dance demanding 'action' and the agency or agencies in question '... do something...'

The officers investigating this rather heinous crime - if I may editorialize a bit - probably know this voluntary firearms testing is a waste of time, but it's '...doing something...' This placates the elected officials and the 'media' for a while and hopefully the officers involved can actually do some investigation.

Whereas I do not like the direction this takes, for reasons of precedent and established procedures, I don't think it's part of some overall conspiracy to undermine the 'reasonable search' provisions of the Forth Amendment. (I suppose I could be wrong.)

I think a proper response would be to not agree to testing, and at the same time, writing to local papers criticizing media hysteria and pressure from elected officials, neither of which group know the least thing about finding murderers in today's legal climate.

 

[Guntalk]

When the "DC Sniper" investigation was going on, the Maryland police were asking everyone who had bought a rifle firing the .223 cartridge to let the police take it in for testing. A friend of mine called, asking my advice.

NO WAY, I told him. In this case, the police take the gun away. You no longer are in control of it, have no idea what testing is done, and there is no reason (advantage) to do it.

I also put him in touch with an attorney, who told him the same thing.

Oklahoma gun owners should ignore this letter. More than that, they should ask if all police officers' 40 cal pistols have been tested.

 

[Waitone]

The trick, my dear Sherlock, is to get them to willingly put the collar around their own necks.

 

[Elza]

Utterly ridiculous. I can think of only two reasons for such madness:

1) See the above post from Archie.

2) It involves someone that they are trying to get the investigative spotlight away from. Find a “similar” barrel and focus the light on the owner of that gun.