BATF Seems To Have Learned Nothing From Waco

BATF Seems To Have Learned Nothing From Waco

This is a disturbing May 15, 2009 news story from a Connecticut newspaper, the Record-Journal:

WALLINGFORD - A usually quiet mobile home park was shaken Friday morning when about 15 officers from the U.S. bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local police descended on one of their neighbor's homes with force.

"They had their guns drawn and were surrounding the house," said Jennifer Monroe of Hosford Bridge Road. "These weren't small guns, they were machine guns. It wasn't normal."

Lynne Boynton, of 15 Hosford Bridge Road, went to her husband's truck for coffee money at about 6 a.m. and was pushed to the driveway and handcuffed with an officer's knee in her back and a gun to her head.

ATF officers surrounded her father-in-law's home at Western Sands Mobile Home Park and used a battering ram to enter the unlocked home in the rear, Boynton said.

"They were pouring out of there like crazy," said Monroe, who can easily see the front door. "They had Lynne in handcuffs. We were like 'What are they looking for?' "

Once inside, officers pulled Gilman Boynton and Paul Boynton out of bed, the men said. Paul Boynton said three or four officers threw him to the floor and put a gun to his head. Gilman Boynton, 76, who suffers from a heart condition, was made to sit in the living room, he said.

Now, there is a somewhat legitimate basis for BATF to show up and ask some questions (which isn't the same as bashing in a door and putting a gun to the head of someone who isn't resisting):

The family was told by ATF officers that the agency received a tip six weeks ago that a convicted felon was living at the home and had access to guns, Lynne Boynton said. Paul Boynton was arrested 34 years ago at the age of 17 with a friend who had forged a check. He hasn't been arrested since, he said.

Gilman Boynton is a gun collector, who keeps his rifles in a locked case on the wall, and a Beretta pistol in a safe. On Friday, ATF officers confiscated 14 rifles from the gun case and took his permits, he said. After breaking the safe, the ATF officers left the Beretta with a magazine cartridge still in the safe in Boynton's dresser.

"If they are so worried about guns, why did they leave a pistol in the safe and the holster?" Lynne Boynton said. "It was humiliating; I've never been handcuffed in my life."

Indeed, if Paul Boynton's felony conviction was the basis for the raid, then especially a handgun would seem like the most logical weapon to confiscate, until his living arrangements were resolved. But taking only the rifles?

Even if we accept the validity of a lifelong prohibition on gun possession for any felony conviction, there is simply no basis for this level of force. If Paul Boynton had a history of violent crimes, this might be slightly plausible. But a non-violent felony conviction more than three decades in the past justifies this level of brutality? There's either a lot more to this story, or BATF hasn't learned anything from past misbehavior--and you can be sure that Obama's boys aren't going to reprimand them.'

Thanks to A Goy And His Blog for bringing this to my attention. (Clever pun on that awful 1970s movie, A Boy And His Dog.)