Can Law Enforcement Take Accessories From Your Firearm?

[OakleySD7]

Hello,

Well make a long story short I was at work a few days ago and a local friend of mine came in.

We got to talking and we were talking about a guy a few houses down that got arrested what for I'm not sure. I think it was a felony.

Anyways he got arrested and law enforcement took his decked out tactical shotgun. He also had some Magpul/ Eotech stuff that I remember him buying at the gun show the other day. I know because I was right behind him in line purchasing some ammo.

Let me get to my point, Law Enforcement took all the stuff he got at the gun show ( Magpul/ Eotech ) that wasn't on any firearm.

Now if you get a felony they should only be able to take your firearms ( With or without the accessories ) I can understand that but they took his other stuff that wasn't even on a firearm.

How can they even do that, I don't understand it.
Can anyone answer my question. Also if they take your firearm can you take off the accessories or do they count it as part of the gun.

[cakes]

You should expect a law enforcement officer to 'take' anything that is contraband or evidence of a crime. You need more information about the case in question to be able to know whether the items should have been 'taken'.

If you use a gun in a crime, don't expect to get your scope back. Or your tac light, etc.

[ampaterry]

Cakes is absolutely correct.
If he was arrested for tax avoidance, they would have seized all his paperwork, computers, external memory storage devices, CD's, etc., for their possible use as evidence in the case even though owning NONE of those things is a criminal act.
If he was arrested for assaulting someone with a club, they would have seized his baseball bats and entire bag of golf clubs for testing to see if one of them was used, even though it is legal to own them and 49 of the 50 he owned were NOT used in the crime.

You need more info -

And WELCOME TO THE BEST FIREARMS FORUM ON THE WEB!!

[Helix_FR]

There are accessories out there that are not permitted to be owned by the civilian market. EOTec does produce accessories for LEO and Military only. I happen to be doing some CD-ROM programming for a company now that makes laser acquisition sighting systems that go along with EOTec and stand alone systems. None of it is for civilian sale. He may have bought it at a gun show not knowing that it was illegal for him to by and illegal for whom he bought it from to sell.

[45nut]

He may have bought it at a gun show not knowing that it was illegal for him to by and illegal for whom he bought it from to sell.

Oh so close to perfection Helix! LOL:eek: :D

Very good point. LE may have seen what was being sold and collected the receipts to go collect the contraband. Just a guess without more info.

[Bobitis]

Given a search warrant, LEO can take what ever they want.

[Jim K]

"Given a search warrant, LEO can take what ever they want."

Not true. A search warrant has to specify what the officers are looking for. It can be a bit vague, like "firearms, firearms parts and accessories, and ammunition", but with that warrant, they couldn't seize your computer or your TV set.

A lot depends on what the arrest was for; he could have knowingly bought stolen or illegal items.

Jim