Serio v. Maryland gives expensive spanking to gun grabbers
(1-10-2005) Maryland's highest court recently dealt a blow to one of urban areas' most brazen gun-grabbing practices. In Serio v. Maryland, it ruled police wrongly retained a citizen's seized firearms. Robert Serio was convicted of vehicular manslaughter after an auto accident in 1999. Based on a tip from Serio's estranged wife, police were ready to raid his home for guns the day court rendered judgement in his case, because this vehicular matter is one of the many surprising ways someone can become ineligible to possess a gun. He was never charged with being a ‘felon in possession' – police had his guns before he ever got a chance to touch them following judgement when he became disabled – but they refused to let him arrange for disposition of his property, even though his guns were not seized as part of a crime. You'd think the Bill of Rights demands otherwise, but police in Montgomery, Prince George's and (in this case) Baltimore Counties routinely ignore requests for return of either property or equity having no nexus with crime. The Serio ruling brands this practice unconstitutional, saying he is entitled to “just compensation.” Bit by bit, big government's iron grip on our rights can be broken, but judicial redress is always the hardest. This outcome was five years and tens of thousands of dollars in the making.
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