Point/Counterpoint

Oakland plan threatens Constitution

Incompetence of city would make matters worse

By Margaret Mele

From the May 2008 Print Edition

Was this plan Barack Obama’s idea? He is in favor of citywide bans on guns. That is what’s next. Washington, D.C. already did it. San Francisco also has tried. Oakland’s plan is the first step toward disarming the citizenry. Our Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy.

When I first read about Oakland’s plan, I thought they’d only search when asked, which is bad enough, but since then I’ve done some research and learned that they intend to send police door-to-door asking for “permission to search.” This smacks of Nazi Germany, with the SS knocking on doors in the middle of the night looking for Jews.

So the city of Oakland wants to cut down on illegal gun use, but what about when the police find legal guns — guns whose owners have gone through the whole excruciating process of buying a firearm? Supposedly, the Oakland police will just take any guns they find and not press charges unless it turns out the gun was involved in a crime. A gun doesn’t magically turn purple when it is used in a crime, so how will they know? There are so many crimes, how are they going to compare your gun to all of their open cases? How far back will they go? What if the gun was used in a crime before you owned it?

Police cannot know for certain in the field if a gun has been used for a crime. They will just have to confiscate every gun pending full investigation. But wait! They aren’t investigating the guns — seems we have a bit of a dilemma. Of course, the police will keep the gun in their possession until they are satisfied — and when you try to call to ask about it, to see how everything is going, to ask when you will get it back, you’ll be lucky if you get a voicemail box.

My father once had 22 guns stolen from him. Thankfully, the robbers didn’t get the ones that mean something to him, but what was the first thing the police did when they came to investigate? They took his guns — his legally bought, registered, and locked up guns. When my father tried to get them back, they refused. It took him almost a year to get them back, and this was in a nice, upper-middle-class neighborhood in Fresno — it’s as conservative as you can get.

How do you think Oakland will do in comparison? I’ll tell you how: horribly. The city can barely keep the peace as it is, so is adding another burdensome task really what is best for the community? NBC 11 reported that Oakland police recently spent time observing the program in Washington, D.C. The D.C. police even said that there were too many calls for their force. Also, do we really want to be more like D.C., where you can’t even own a gun? I think not.

According to the NBC affiliate, this plan was first tried in St. Louis, but has since stopped. This plan is unconstitutional for more than just one reason; aside from it infringing on the Second Amendment, it also infringes on the Fourth. I’m sure you know it — it’s the one that protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. Apparently, the Oakland City Council hasn’t heard of it. The government is supposed to have probable cause by a sworn oath. Is citywide crime or even a phone call — not a sworn statement — a reasonable excuse for having a squadron of cops rampaging through your house on a wild-goose chase?

When asked to do something by the police, good lawabiding citizens do it immediately and ask questions later. This plan takes advantage of citizens’ trust. Just by asking, the police are pressuring you to submit to an unlawful search. If you refuse, the investigators and police will believe that you are guilty of something and may bring more pressure to bear on you — even start a full investigation of you.

Supposedly, part of the program will be to educate people about their constitutional rights. With the state’s abysmal literacy rate, does the City Council honestly think this will work? Oakland cannot even teach children basic arithmetic; I have absolutely no confidence in its ability to cover a complex topic like the Constitution.

So the city comes in, takes your gun, conducts tests on it, most likely loses it, and — if you’re lucky — you may eventually get it back! This proposal belongs in the circular file.

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