ACLU lawsuit gets mans confiscated guns returned.

[-..__...]

It might not be a 2nd amendment case, but at least it's a start...

An elderly Broward man who police say was suicidal when they took his guns from him will soon have his weaponry back, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Robert Weinstein, 85, has been without his firearms since February, when Broward Sheriff's deputies, fearing for Weinstein's safety after he reportedly expressed suicidal tendencies following his wife's death, took the guns from him.

Weinstein was represented for free by the American Civil Liberties Union. An ACLU spokesman said it might be the first time they've ever helped someone get their guns back from a law enforcement agency.

Check out the pic attached to the story and tell me that it's not biased or hateful towards firearms owners...

Complete story

[Statistical]

1. It is a start.

I hope in my lifetime the ACLU will stop being hypocritical and protect ALL civil liberties.

If not I hope I am rich enough to sue them on "truth in advertising" to change their name to the ACLETOAGU
American Civil Liberties (except that one about guns) Union. :)

[old mark]

11. Yeah -- I was hoping they had seen the light, but I guess they have not....

All The Civil Rights We Want You To Have...


mark

[ZombieHorde]

2. They used a movie photo! Is that a joke? Weird. nt

[oneshooter]

3. From "Gran Torino" Good flick. n/t

[rfranklin]

4. yeah, they should have gotten a shot of the guy eating his gun...

Seriously, though, with budget cuts it is hard to create news photos. A lot of newspapers are sending out inexperienced reporters with point and shoot cameras and having them interview and photograph.

[-..__...]

5. It's from "Gran Torino".

Clint Eastwood is cast as a racist, bitter, ill tempered old man.

In that scene he's confronting a group of Hmongs at gun point demanding that they "get off my lawn".

[Glassunion]

6. Well then...

They should do just that and get off his lawn. Seems a reasonable request to me. He did not even raise his voice. Nice fella.

[PavePusher]

8. Ummm... you left out a whole lot of context there.... n/t

[-..__...]

21. Context?!?

What about the context of the story in relation to the picture?

If the decision to run that particular picture alongside the story wasn't meant to be unflattering to gun owners, then at the very least it was meant to portray the plaintiff as a crazy old coot with a gun.

I mean c'mon... at least use a picture of the actual person or don't use a picture at all.

[PavePusher]

22. My apologies, I thought you were implying bad things about the movie.

I blame lack of coffee....


And you are correct about the relationship (or rather lack thereof) of the picture to the article.

[-..__...]

27. No problem...

although I rather enjoyed the movie myself, it would rate low on my 'Eastwood Meter®'.

[Hoopla Phil]

16. While I believe he did use the line "get off my lawn" that was not why

he had the M-1 Garand rifle pointed at the "kids". The scene was a gang fight that started at his neighbors and spilled over onto his property. When things came onto his property it became his business so he took care of business.

Yes it is about an aging man that is racist. It is a movie about redemption and how an old racist in his dieing years learns to become accepting of others and grow past his racism. And along the way help a family in trouble. Pretty good flick in my opinion.

[PavePusher]

18. +1T

[brendan120678]

12. So evidently...

Clint Eastwood's real name is Robert Weinstein.

[SteveM]

26. ...and he's already eighty-five?

[Ter]

28. Lol

:)

[X_Digger]

7. I wish the main org would catch up with the local chapters.

It's sheer obstinacy at this point. TX, NV, FL, LA- all those local chapters have taken cases directly or indirectly related to, and supporting, the second amendment as an individual right.

[benEzra]

9. Also, how often does a news story refer to the subject of a story in those terms?

"Old Man Can Stick to His Confiscated Guns: Judge" as a headline? Seriously?

[Statistical]

10. Newspapers have gone way downhill compared to just 20 years ago.

Sadly it is dying out very rapidly now.

[PavePusher]

20. "If it bleeds, it leads..." n/t

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Told you guys the ACLU was coming around.

Local chapter by chapter.

[Euromutt]

19. I really need to send them a letter, though

I've been a card-carrying member of the ACLU almost as long as I've been living in the U.S. and just their role in Kitzmiller v. Dover (which effectively stopped the Creationism-in-a-stolen-labcoat that is "Intelligent Design" dead in its tracks) is enough to have earned them my continued support.

That was before the Heller verdict, though, and more specifically the national leadership's reaction to it. It borders on the incredible to see the Supreme Court deliver a verdict in favor of individual liberties, and see the ACLU simply dismiss that verdict as wrong.

[dtexdem]

14. It's not biased or hateful towards firearms owners.

And the ACLU has a point: a person ultimately has a right to suicide. Acting to protect a person who may harm him/herself needs to be done; but six months is too long a period in a case like this or self-reported suicidal ideation.

And whether it was guns or pills or whatever is irrelevant.

[Euromutt]

17. I think the OP was referring to NBC Miami, not Broward Sheriff's Office or the ACLU

When you have a news story about an 85 year-old guy threatening to commit suicide, it seems pretty inappropriate to me to lead off the story with a movie still of a fictional character aiming a firearm at someone else. Particularly since the headline and sub-header do not make it clear the firearms were confiscated because the owner was reportedly suicidal, not because he'd been aiming his firearm at someone else.

[benEzra]

23. That, and the fact that the headline is rather pejorative.

"Old Man Can Stick to His Confiscated Guns" is rather pejorative; one would ordinarily see something like "ACLU Helps Return Broward Resident's Guns" or something like that.

[slackmaster]

15. I suspect that was the Florida ACLU rather than the national ACLU

:kick:

[TPaine7]

24. "Don't we call that, in the business, stealing?"

"What legal authority does the sheriff or anybody have to walk in to someone's home and take property?" Ross asked BSO lawyer Mila Schwartzreich. "Don't we call that, in the business, stealing?"

Exactly judge, it is called stealing. I like it when a judge or other official uses proper terminology like that.

Most government types like to pretend, through verbal defecation, that government officials can't steal, or murder, or kidnap, or assault, or defraud. They can and often do. It's good to hear the truth from government types sometimes.

[Tejas]

25. Eastwood is sooooooo gonna sue

Eastwood's picture + "An elderly Broward man who police say was suicidal..." can not turn out well for the author.