Child-Snatchers and Gun-Grabbers Unite

by William Grigg
Mar. 21, 2013

Shawn Moore of Carneys Point, New Jersey was visiting a friend's house when he got a disturbing call from his wife, who said that police and child welfare investigators were at their home.

By the time he got back to his house, Moore -- a certified hunting safety instructor -- was on the phone with attorney Evan Nappen, who specializes in Second Amendment cases. The investigators were demanding access to the family's gun safe to see if all of their firearms were registered. At one point the child "safety" bureaucrats threatened to seize Moore's children.

In the face of this provocation, Moore maintained his composure while refusing to relinquish his rights. He wisely withheld permission to inspect his gun safe, since New Jersey law doesn't require him to grant such access. Instead, he demanded to see a search warrant, and when none was produced, he ordered the investigators to leave.

"I don't like what happened," Moore later observed. "You're not even safe in your own house. If they can just show up at any time and make you open safes and go through your house, that's not freedom; it's like tyranny."

The visit apparently followed an anonymous tip prompted by a Facebook photo of Moore's 11-year-old son Josh, who is holding a .22-caliber rifle he had received as a birthday present. The rifle's cosmetic features make it resemble one of those dreaded -- albeit ill-defined -- "assault weapons" that cause Diane Feinstein to twist her Gorgon features into a grimace of pious disapproval.

All parents should make contingency plans for uninvited and unannounced visits from agents of the child-snatcher bureaucracy. This is especially urgent now that child-snatchers and gun-grabbers are increasingly pooling their resources. Although the New Jersey Department of Children and Families wouldn't confirm that it was responding to an anonymous report, department spokesperson Kristen Brown told Fox News that investigators "are required to follow up on every single allegation that comes into the central registry." The raid on Moore's home, Brown insisted, represented a "prudent and wise" policy.

That makes perfect sense, if the terms "prudent and wise" are functional synonyms for "totalitarian." If you have children and guns, you should expect to attract the malevolent interest of state functionaries who are eager to grab both.