Guns a chief concern in domestic cases

[jpak]

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/southington/article_476f8014-96d7-11e0-ad45-001cc4c002e0.html

When police are called to a domestic violence complaint or a restraining order is issued, weapons are always a chief concern, local law enforcement officials say.

State law allows police to seize any firearm in plain view at the scene of an incident even if no arrest is made and to seize a weapon from someone suspected of committing a crime, even if no arrest has been made. Protective orders require the surrender of weapons and judges usually order the same of people subject to a restraining order.

<snip>

While involved parties will usually surrender their guns voluntarily, police said, the system isn't foolproof. People can lie or hide weapons, or there can be filing irregularities in the computer database that tracks pistol permits and registrations. And some weapons, such as hunting rifles, don't have to be registered with the state.

The relationship between weapons and domestic violence is in sharp focus locally after an apparent murder-suicide in Southington Saturday, the second such incident in less than a week. Both involved a man apparently killing his ex-wife, then turning the gun on himself. The other incident was in Wallingford.

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[gejohnston]

1. funny thing you should post this today

IIRC, most murders involving domestic disputes are easily spotted because of history of domestic abuse. Since it is a rage, blunt objects and fists are the most common murder weapons. That said, one could make a reasonable argument that the police preventive action did more harm than good. The only personal experience I know of is someone who I went to high school with killed his abusive step father to protect his mother from such a fate. While this is a gun issue to some degree, but it involve a number of issues also.
I know where you are going with this, but one needs to look at the larger picture.
I was just reading something Thom Hartman mentioned sometime ago about a BBC study in Australia that spanned several decades. Basically found that such incidents like this, suicides, and tend to increase when conservative governments are elected because their policies tend to wreck the economy for all but the very wealthy and trash the social safety net.

Murder suicide is more common in Japan than here. Most have to do with poverty. Of course, Japan has other cultural issues surrounding suicide (given the number of words to describe it)
http://www.glocom.org/special_topics/social_trends/20040107_trends_s65/index.html

[ileus]

2. Only single people living alone should be allowed firearm access.

[ManiacJoe]

3. Link seems to have gone bad.

[petronius]

4. Slow news day? Are there any violent situations ever that police don't keep an eye out

for weapons? Or any situations at all? :shrug:

My amateur opinion is that police are wary about everything and the kitchen sink during DV calls - they seem like particularly dangerous places to be...

[krispos42]

5. Doubtless the police, when they get a DV call...

...immediately check the state or federal gun registry. Once they see there are no guns registered there, they slap themselves a high-five for an easy call and leave their guns in the cruiser so the unarmed residents can't grab their pistols away and turn a bad situation worse.

[petronius]

6. Yeah, I can picture it now: "No guns listed; let's pick up mochas on the way."

"Great idea! And once this friendly misunderstanding is cleared up, we can all go play some skee-ball..."

:)

[krispos42]

7. I here they order a pizza for delivery to the address...

...while they're en route, just so they can drag in the perp on a full belly.