Police & Veterans' Admin. perform "wellness check" on veteran, confiscate guns

[rambone]

A 50-year-old disabled Navy veteran, with no history of mental illness, was forcefully given a "wellness check" in which his vehicle was commandeered, his home was forcibly searched without a warrant, his Connecticut gun permit was revoked, and his guns were confiscated from his home safe.

Police told Mr. Schmecker that if he wouldn't open his safe, that they would "bust it open." He was not arrested and no charges were placed on him.




There is more than 40 minutes of interview with the man on this site:

Navy Vet David Schmecker Has Guns Confiscated By Force In Connecticut

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjxu4I2jxXg"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjxu4I2jxXg[/ame]



I was personally contacted by this guy on my YouTube account. He left me this message. Doing a search for more info, I discovered the coverage from SurviveAndThrive.tv, posted above.

Hi ,
I want introduce myself. My name is David A Schmecker. If possible I'd like to get my story known to as many people as possible. To make this as brief as possible I live in Connecticut and I'm 50 years old and I'm an honorably discharged disabled NAVY veteran.. I don't have a psychiatric past or a criminal past.

Feb 5th 2013 my veterans hospital primary care doctor called my home and heard a message on my answering machine he said sounded peculiar and the VA contacted the local police to perform a wellness check. The police came to my home and without any justification whatsoever, hauled me away for a psychiatric evaluation to a local hospital. I submitted to their forceful insistence under duress and fear of arrest or worse. I wasn't arrested and no crime was committed nor any threats made to myself or others. They confiscated my guns and pistol permit. I was released two days later from the evaluation on my on recognizance I have since attempted to use the courts and attorneys to fight the revocation of my pistol permit Then on top of everything else, the bills from the short stay at the hospital and ems bills they billed me and what I had to pay the attorney adds up to a large amount of money. I'm just a nobody so there is obviously a campaign orchestrated to disarm law abiding citizens and the Veterans Administration has found a loophole in the system to do it. Because I'm a nobody they feel empowered to be able to do this to me. I must be the tip of the ice burg of this campaign and they are testing the waters to see what they can get away with and with whom. They have messed with my life and my rights. If I wasn't hurt I could just walk away from the VA but I utilize their benefit for all of my healthcare needs.. I am very concerned about where this country is headed.

 

[jath08]

No warrant, no due process, wrongful confiscation???? Hope this guy wins a BIG lawsuit.

 

[Bunnykid68]

But they said they would never confiscate our guns

 

[BogWalker]

Darn, unlike Commiefornia we can't just drop Konnecticut into the ocean.

 

[Bunnykid68]

Darn, unlike Commiefornia we can't just drop Konnecticut into the ocean.

It's close enough

 

[Mark 1911]

I hope this guy is very rich, very soon, courtesy of the State of CT. There should be criminal charges against all parties who orchestrated or participated in this so that they never serve in public office or law enforcement ever again, and that they themselves lose their right to own a firearm, surrender all of their firearms, and are never able to own a firearm again.

 

[USA#1]

This is an outrage. Is this something that the NRA would be able to help with?

 

[mrjarrell]

This is an outrage. Is this something that the NRA would be able to help with?

LOL. Don't hold your breath on that.

 

[Kutnupe14]

There's not enough info to get the whole story, and due to HIPA laws, we'll never get the whole story.

Questions to ask:

Why did his VA doctor call in the first place?
Did the "victim" indicate, at any time that he may harm himself?
Victim states that he did not, but if that is true, why would he stay for evaluation for 2 days? (In Indiana a guy can leave whenever he wants)
Can officers revoke firearm permits, at will, and that quickly? (guys says he's fighting revocation)
How is this a campaign to disarm law abiding citizens? Is this practice, of singling out vets, widespread?

OR

Is the guy actually crazy?

AND

Why should I believe a guy who has never heard of a "wellness/welfare" check (something that happen VERY frequently in LE, nor can he even pronounce "psychiatric" correctly?

My 2 Cents: I'd rather hear it from the horse's mouth than some guy with a youtube acct, unless he is the victim himself.

 

[Kutnupe14]

I hope this guy is very rich, very soon, courtesy of the State of CT. There should be criminal charges against all parties who orchestrated or participated in this so that they never serve in public office or law enforcement ever again, and that they themselves lose their right to own a firearm, surrender all of their firearms, and are never able to own a firearm again.

Mark, I honestly would put to much faith in this story being 100% factual.

 

[Timothy All Knowing]

This victim can release all of his personal health records if he wishes. These gestapos need to be sued and there should be heavy public outcry. Where are the veterans organizations? Put me on the jury and I will do my part to make things even. Remember, "jury nullification" which means no matter what instruction the judge gives you once the jury door closes you can do anything you want and no one in the world can do anything about it.

 

[vitamink]

Remember, "jury nullification" which means no matter what instruction the judge gives you once the jury door closes you can do anything you want and no one in the world can do anything about it.

This is exactly why the court of public opinion is played so heavily. In this story we will never know what actually happened. We only know what this guy want's to tell us happened. You heard this one sided story and in your own words said you are willing to free/convict/award settlement to etc etc based on what one guy says without any investigation what so ever. This is very common in the court room with jurors nowadays. Though they are instructed not to, they google the name of the persons involved. If you type this guy's name in a search engine, you'll see a ton of he did nothing wrong, hoping to sway your opinion...obviously it's successful.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

There's not enough info to get the whole story, and due to HIPA laws, we'll never get the whole story.

Questions to ask:

Why did his VA doctor call in the first place?
Did the "victim" indicate, at any time that he may harm himself?
Victim states that he did not, but if that is true, why would he stay for evaluation for 2 days? (In Indiana a guy can leave whenever he wants)
Can officers revoke firearm permits, at will, and that quickly? (guys says he's fighting revocation)
How is this a campaign to disarm law abiding citizens? Is this practice, of singling out vets, widespread?

OR

Is the guy actually crazy?

AND

Why should I believe a guy who has never heard of a "wellness/welfare" check (something that happen VERY frequently in LE, nor can he even pronounce "psychiatric" correctly?

My 2 Cents: I'd rather hear it from the horse's mouth than some guy with a youtube acct, unless he is the victim himself.

All solid questions. The mental health system is the fastest revolving door I've ever seen. Early in my career I had a guy in a hotel lobby fighting demons with a brass jeweler's hammer. I did an "immediate detention" on him, and off he went to a local hospital's stress center.

At the end of my shift, guess who's back at the hotel, sans hammer, and now hiding from snipers? Yeah, in less than 8 hours he was back out.

Even from his own story, something was odd enough to worry his PCP. Something was odd enough to convince the police to do a lot more work than a "he's fine, we're off to the next run which is what you're ALWAYS hoping for on a check the welfare. Two days means that the mental health professionals also believed he was a threat to himself or others. Of course no charges were filed, its not a criminal act and an "immediate detention" isn't an arrest.

Its always real easy to paint someone else in the wrong when you only have one side to the story.

 

[rambone]

My 2 Cents: I'd rather hear it from the horse's mouth than some guy with a youtube acct, unless he is the victim himself.

The victim has given his account in 2 posted emails plus a 40-50 minute recorded interview, available at the link I provided.

 

[drillsgt]

If you can't get gun control passed then just increase the ways in which people are disqualified from owning a gun.

 

[jgreiner]

No warrant, no due process, wrongful confiscation???? Hope this guy wins a BIG lawsuit.

He won't. This is the REPUBLIK of Connecticut that we are talking about.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

The devil with a lawsuit.
I hope they try the perpetrators with treason.
Or at least high crimes and misdemeanors.