Friend's Guns Seized, letter sent, 72 days later and nothing

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The title kind of says it all. A friend had his weapons seized for improper storage and his LTC revoked. He sent them a letter immediately after instructing the PD to deliver those firearms to a FFL who was a close friend of the family.

I found this on Goal's website:

Surrender/Confiscation of Firearms Information (M.G.L. 140 c 129D)

  1. If you receive a notice of revocation or suspension you must surrender your firearms, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, and FID/LTC card immediately to the licensing authority in the city or town that you live in.
  2. Your rights after you have surrender or confiscation. (i) After delivery you have one year to transfer your firearms, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, and ammunition to any person legally permitted to possess them, including a licensed FFL of YOUR CHOICE. (ii)Once your firearms and ammunition have been surrendered or confiscated, immediately write and deliver a letter to them with instructions as to where they are going to be transferred. The licensing authority must deliver the firearms/ammunition within ten days of receipt of your letter.
Clearly this PD is breaking the law, he has a copy of the letter and it was dated. The FFL has called several times to get them to release the weapons but they refuse. He hasn't been charged with anything and it has been about 104 calendar days since the incident. What can he do?
 
I'm sure people will be by shortly to tell you to take this post down.
There has to be more to the story here though. The police aren't going to confiscate firearms for improper storage. How do they know they're improperly stored? Did they have a warrant? What was it for?
IANAL so these are questions I'm curious about rather than being relevant to the law.
 
I'm sure people will be by shortly to tell you to take this post down.
There has to be more to the story here though. The police aren't going to confiscate firearms for improper storage. How do they know they're improperly stored? Did they have a warrant? What was it for?
IANAL so these are questions I'm curious about rather than being relevant to the law.

Happens all the time.

Personal experince (not me or ayone I know), someone calls 911 for one reason or another (EMS, small fire, etc), police show up, observe unsecured firearms laying around... busted!
 
They were executing a search warrant on the premises for another tenant in the house, he had a pistole on the bed, and that's how that happened.

He needs a lawyer if he ever wants to see his guns again. (or at least be able to sell them via an FFL). Never thought (in a million years) I'd say this but I'd probably be calling up Jason Guida. He routinely deals with these kinds of things on a regular basis.

-Mike
 
Three months later, I'd assume the guns are at a bonded warehouse by now. Might even have been sold.

Why didn't your friend follow up with PD after 10 days?
 
There has been good communication between all the parties and it was said that they would not be going to a bonded warehouse. The C.O.P said he wanted to hold onto the weapons pending the appeal. Even after the letter was given and the FFL himself called the LT. several times. It seems that, they don't even know that they are breaking the law.
 
Call a damn attorney if there is nothing more to the story.

In MA though, who knows what will happen.

Were any of his other guns 'improperly stored' ??
 
It seems that, they don't even know that they are breaking the law.

Ignorance to the law is no exception. Unless you're a PD then you do whatever the hell you want. [hmmm]

I would suggest having your friend secure a lawyer and at least have that lawyer send a certified letter to the chief stating that they are in violation of MA law. See if that does anything. Not very likely but at least it's a start.
 
It's been actually 104 days since then and he had called a lawyer who told him to wait 90 days and if he wasn't charged with anything then contact them.

Ok correction, 104 days of full retard.

if an attorney ever says to "wait 90 days", that means find a better attorney.
 
If he hasn't been charged, why are they still holding the guns?

Honestly I don't know, they are not evidence to a crime so they should have been released a while ago. I told him to lawyer up, I just wanted to see what you guys thought. I believe he is afraid that they will charge him with something if he tries to rock the boat. I keep telling him that they are breaking more laws than he did.

- - - Updated - - -

As stated - He needs to call a lawyer.

Has he checked here to see if any of his stuff is up for sale.....?
http://www.yankeeartifacts.com/

Is there were all the weapons the police confiscate end up?
 
Honestly I don't know, they are not evidence to a crime so they should have been released a while ago. I told him to lawyer up, I just wanted to see what you guys thought. I believe he is afraid that they will charge him with something if he tries to rock the boat. I keep telling him that they are breaking more laws than he did.

This is the heart of the matter. Some kind honest folks are sufficiently foolish to believe that nanny MA will ultimately "do the right thing."

wrong. If given 10 opportunities, They will f*** you 10 times.
Legal counsel is the only thing that brings that 10/10 down to maybe a 7/10 on a good day.
 
I hope your friend is able to take some legal action and recover his firearms.

Hopefully he can also learn some Massprudence, which would include...
1. Minimizing association with people against whom search warrants are issued. A sketchy friend is a former friend. I've learned this the hard way.
2. Abiding by the laws no matter how stupid they are (i.e our full retard gun storage laws)
 
Not So Fast

The police must retain the weapons if they are evidence in a criminal case. That begs the question: "is the guy being charged under 131L?" The guy could be stuck in legal limbo. If he hasn't already been charged with a 131L violation, he's still got that hanging over his head as long as the PD has his guns.

He needs to get an attorney and have the attorney serve the PD with a 129D letter. He can contact Comm2A for a referral OR his attorney can contact us for information on a 129D letter.

[/thread]
 
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