Wants to Take Plane and Shotgun, Too

Though the issue gun ownership may become a moot point, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marshall Young of Rapid City (SD) thought that taking away the Cub and Benelli shotgun from rancher Jerry Janvrin was "punishment in excess of the crime," and thus contrary to the Eighth Amendment's guarantee. He knocked down the federal prosecutor's attempt to grab the property; however, the prosecutor, not content with merely having found the man guilty, is appealing that decision.

Janvrin, 50, was convicted in September of illegally killing a coyote. He was arrested last March, and his Cub and Benelli shotgun were taken at the time.

The prosecutor is appealing the magistrate's decision, saying that the airplane and gun should belong to the State, as they were 'instrumentalities' of crime. The idea is deep-rooted in US court decisions, dating back at least as far as times when pirate ships were not returned to their owners. [Often, the ships were leased to the bad guys, and then converted, without the owners' knowledge or permission; but the conversion made them no longer the 'merchant ships' that they originally were -- so the government, sensing the danger of putting them back on the water, would either turn them over to the Navy, or destroy them. A light airplane, though (or a shotgun), could easily serve a non-criminal purpose, so the argument in this case is not as strong, as the magistrate pointed out --ed.]

Seizures and forfeitures have lately become a favorite financing gimmick for local governments, which are not getting universal voter cooperation in raising taxes. Lately billed as a way to break 'drug kingpins,' forfeiture laws have been used to take all kinds of property from all kinds of people, from this man's airplane, to real estate, to the car belonging to the wife a man who picked up a hooker [see Bennis v Michigan].

Anyway, Janvrin also faces up to a year in prison, when he goes in for sentencing on November 19. Depending on South Dakota's gun laws he stands to lose his right to the shotgun; but the airplane... Anybody want to do an annual on a Cub?

FMI: www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=792; Bennis