fabsroman
Ultimate Member
From one of the comments after the article. Not sure if it is true, but it sounds plausible.
Now for the rest of the story, and summarizing it. A couple, one of whom was a Vietnam veteran and collector of military memorabilia, were moving. Family members offered to help. When they arrived, they saw the couple had military memorabilia and got scared. They called police. Police came and arrested the man and sent him for involuntary psychiatric screening. This would have been done with a mental health warrant that the police would have sought based on the family being afraid of them having guns. No threat was needed to get the warrant - just a family member who was afraid of them and knew they had them.
The man was taken involuntarily to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. Police removed all the memorabilia, then determined they were all safe and there was no danger. It is not clear if the man has been released from the hospital or not. Police are (hopefully) still in possession of all his possessions. No word on what actions he will have to take to get them back assuming none go missing.
Pennsylvania does NOT have red flag laws. Therefore, police seized the mans property and committed him to a psychiatric hospital without cause. A red flag law would actually make that totally legal. ANY family member that has ANY relative that owns guns, if that family member doesn't like guns, can have them confiscated. Many states that have red flag laws currently allow the court orders to be requested by family members - it doesn't have to be law enforcement. So a family member approaches the court, says they have been saying stuff that they believe makes them a risk to themselves or others, and they throw in a few "quotes". Many states, the evidenciary requirements are low so the order is issued. It's sent to police who execute it. A man is at home watching TV and police come knocking and tell him they are there to execute a warrant to take his guns. He can't do anything to stop them.
Reminds me of the saying, "You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family."
If I was this guy and his wife, I would make damn sure that those family members that did this did not receive a single cent after I passed away.