Foster Parents Denied Custody Because Of Gun Ownership

2nd Amendment Foundation Files Suit: Alleges Foster Parents Forced to Give Up Gun Rights for Child

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Reuters/John Sommers II

by AWR HAWKINS18 Jul 201722

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is suing the head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) over alleged violations of the gun rights of would-be foster parents.

The would-be foster parents, William and Jill Johnson, were trying to secure custody of their grandson when William was reportedly told he had to hand over the serial numbers for every gun in the home to complete the process. William claims the caseworker said, “If you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights.”

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb told Breitbart News that this sacrifice of Second Amendment rights includes having “no guns for self-protection at home or carried on one’s person.” And in a press release sent to Breitbart News, SAF pointed out that a Gogebic County Court judge allegedly told Williams he had to comply with caseworker’s gun control request if he wanted the foster acquisition to succeed.

According to the SAF press release,

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The policy of the MDHHS, by implementing requirements and restrictions that are actually functional bans on the bearing of firearms for self-defense, both in and out of the home, completely prohibits foster and adoptive parents, and those who would be foster or adoptive parents, from the possession and bearing of readily-available firearms for the purpose of self-defense.  This violates Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

The release quoted Gottlieb saying, “The statements from the caseworker and judge are simply outrageous. This amounts to coercion, with a child as their bartering chip. I cannot recall ever hearing anything so offensive and egregious, and we’ve handled cases like this in the past. Blatantly telling someone they must give up their civil rights in order to care for their own grandchild is simply beyond the pale.”