How did people lose their collections to the government, were they not able to remove them from NY?
I understand they may have lost their right to own it instate, but how did the law take their collection before they could legally dispose of it.
That's a very good question. I can give you a generic example that repeats itself constantly in New York. First, let me give you some background information. In New York State, a person subject to an "Order of Protection" (also known as "restraining orders" in other states - New York distinguishes between the two because a restraining order has an entirely different meaning in the context of civil litigation) may have their guns seized. Sometimes, police agencies seize weapons subject to low-grade arrests (such seizures may or may not be legal depending on the facts but that is immaterial to the instant discussion).
Innocent people may be subject to an order of protection even if they have not been convicted of a crime. Neighbors call the cops on other neighbors that they are involved in a property line disagreement with. Or for some other non-criminal, non-threatening nonsense. It is the policy of many District Attorneys' offices to automatically request the Order of Protection on all harassment cases. Some judges will rubber stamp the Order of Protection without a thorough inquiry of whether it is actually warranted. So, a neighbor dispute where the defendant may actually be the harassed person can (and has) resulted in his/her entire firearms collection being seized due to an order of protection.
Once the collection of firearms is turned over to the police agency charged with storing the firearms during the pendency of the Order of Protection. "Well", you might argue, "it's an inconvenience to be sure, but if a person commit no crime, the guns should simply be returned to their owner when the case is dismissed, right?"
Wrong.
Thanks to
Aloi v. Aloi[i][/i], 10 A.D.3d 655 (2004), the Town & City Justice Courts (where these misdemeanors arise) do not have the authority to issue an Order returning the seized firearms. Instead, the innocent party must initiate an Article 78 proceeding in the Supreme Court (trial courts, to be sure, not the highest court of appeal) in the district where the seizing court issued the initial Order of Protection. This costs a lot of money : $305 for the filing fees (Index No. + Request for Judicial Intervention) and attorneys' fees to write the Order to Show Cause, Verified Petition, and run the hearing (believe me, it's a lot of work and not inexpensive). If the innocent party fails to obtain the Order directing the police department to release the guns, the guns may sit in the station house or end up destroyed.
If the judge refuses to grant the Petition, the innocent party's only recourse is to commence an appeal to the appropriate department of the Appellate Division (there are four; jurisdiction is dependent on geographic locale). Appeals are labor intensive for any law firm, and the administrative costs alone (transcript, printing, service) are
significant. You may or may not be entitled to have your case heard at the Court of Appeals in the even you lose at the Appellate Division.
That's one (of many) ways an innocent party can lose their collection to the government. If you or anyone else is interested, I would be happy to answer further questions about the firearms law debacle in New York, to the extent that I can (obviously I cannot discuss specific cases or disclose confidential client information).
