Hey, I'm firearms attorney Gilbert Ambler, and I want to talk about an issue today that I think is shocking to people that are involved in self-defense incidents, especially when the incident occurs in their house. And that is the concept that if you are involved in a self-defense shooting in your home, there is a strong likelihood that the police are going to confiscate every single firearm that you own. We're going to talk about why this is today, and obviously that's not a fact people like to hear, but it is reality and it's important that you understand that. And we'll talk about a strategy, maybe not one you're going to love, but a strategy to help mitigate against that risk. As always, however, before we dive into this subject, if you have not yet hit that subscribe button, what are you waiting for? Hit subscribe, like, comment with your thoughts, share with your friends.
That way you and your friends can keep getting this important Second Amendment related content. Alright? I just told you that the police, if you are involved in a self-defense shooting in your home, are likely to take every firearm in the home. Why is this true? It's true because they don't want you pulling a fast one on them. What would this be? What's the concern? The concern is you're involved in a shooting that at the outset looks like a valid self-defense shooting, and the police take only the firearm that you say you used. You have a nine millimeter Glock that they take from you. And during the course of their investigation, however, they learned that all is not as it seems. And this shooting, which initially presented as a valid self-defense incident, in fact, had more nefarious conduct behind it. And so all of a sudden the scope of their investigation has broadened and they decide they're going to prosecute you.
And so they send the gun that you said was involved off to labs, and lo and behold, the labs come back and it's not the weapon that was involved in the shooting. Now they have a problem because if they go to prosecute you, they want to prosecute you for murder. The defense attorney is going to make a giant deal of the fact that they don't even have the right weapon. They took the wrong gun, they don't have the murder weapon. And so what do police do to mitigate against this? And not all police, I've been involved in self-defense shootings where police did not take every weapon in the house. And frankly, I think it's kind of shoddy police work. I think smart detectives, smart investigators, are going to take every weapon in the house to mitigate against this risk, the risk of you pulling a bait and switch that you switch out the gun that was used for some other gun.
And when they go and the labs come back, they learn that the gun doesn't match the rest of the scene and they've got the wrong firearm. So what is the takeaway lesson? A, I've heard people say things like, for your home defense gun, you want to make sure that your gun isn't the nicest gun in your gun safe. You don't want to use the ed brown 1911, you want to use your generic lock for home defense. There might be more meaning to that or more legitimacy to that theory for a carry gun because if you're out and about in public, the risk of this bait and switch is far lower If you're involved in a self-defense incident, but inside your home, I think there's a substantial risk that every firearm gets taken. So one thing you could consider is you could consider storing, if you've got a really extensive, really nice collection, there are FFLs and there are services out there that offer gun storage.
You could consider a gun storage option for some of your collection to help mitigate the risk that police, if a self-defense incident occurs at your home, take every single firearm that you own. And I understand people aren't going to love the idea of storing firearms offsite while we're on this subject. I think it's worth reminding everyone, and it is a very important note, that you should never consent to searches. You should never open gun safes for police even in the aftermath of a self-defense incident. And the reason we don't do this is because if the police are investigating you and they're investigating you for something like a self-defense shooting, even if you think you did everything right, you don't want to start giving away playing cards at that time because in reality, the rest of your life is hanging in the balance and with the rest of your life hanging in the balance.
If the police decide that your incident was not justifiable or was not as it initially presents, then they might move forward with prosecution. And we want to make sure that we've got every tool available to challenge that prosecution. If you voluntarily gave the police everything, you open the gun safe for them, let them take everything, let them take the firearm that was used. We're not going to be able to challenge the search and seizure of those items. If you don't consent, if you force the police to get a warrant, will they be annoyed? Will they grumble and make comments, et cetera? Yes, they probably will, but you are preserving your legal rights and with the potential risk out there that you could spend the rest of your life behind bars. If a judge or a jury decides that your incident was not justifiable, you need to make sure that you are not giving up playing cards that you hold.
This is why it's so critical that you get an attorney involved right away if possible, and that in addition to having the attorney, you don't consent to any searches or any seizures and you don't make any statements. You ask for the attorney and then keep your mouth shut. Hopefully everybody watching this channel knows that. If you don't know that, if you've got questions about why that is, drop them in the comments and unfortunately, be prepared for a self-defense incident at your home to result in all of your firearms and potentially all of your ammunition as well to be seized. If you enjoyed this content, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Until next time.
Credit: Gilbert Ambler, Esq., The Commonwealth’s Gun Rights