Would These Guns Be Impounded by LE?

[Texas Star]

In a book that I'm writing, the detective hero and his new girlfriend, who knew a murder victim at work, have gone to his family land in east Texas. The cop was wounded in a convenience store shooting and is on sick leave.

Two thugs hired to kill him and the girl to prevent him solving a case in which she might recall something that'd lead to the killer ambush them.

Shots are exchanged, with the would-be killers fleeing when they encounter accurate return fire. (A bullet from the officer's .44 Magnum almost hits one guy, throwing bits of tree bark in his face at 150 yards. The GF's 9mm almost gets another.)

The thugs depart rapidly in a P/U truck, standing not upon the order of their going, as the cop quips. (Yeah, he reads Shakespeare.)

The rural sheriff is summoned with deputies and a Texas Ranger or DPS unit. Things are explained and the officers look over the scene. See no blood or other signs that the crooks were actually hit. The hero and heroine don't think they hit them, either. (But one guy may have inhaled a 9mm bullet as he rose to run for the truck and died in it later. Not sure yet.)

Now: would the hero's and heroine's guns be impounded for evidence, although no signs exist that they hit someone? That would expose them to danger if the attackers return.

The hero's family has known the sheriff for years and he is in sympathy with them, and rather admires that they drove off the crooks, who were shooting at them with rifles at 150 yards, and the heroes had just handguns.

I'm not sure if I'll name a county, so I won't have to worry about actual procedures in a specfic location. But if any Texas LE members read this, do you think the hero and his lady can keep their guns? There is no question that the sheriff believes them that the shooting was in self defense and the villains are going to be sought on charges of attempted capital murder of a LE officer.

BTW, the .44 Magnum used is a S&W M-629-3 with six-inch bbl. it is not the detective's duty weapon. He is on leave and on his family's land. His girlfriend has a CCW license. I want to arm her with a CZ-75B, but the DA trigger reach may be a little long for a girl. She is 5' 7" and weighs 117 pounds. May give her a SIG P-226.

 

[BearBio]

The closest I know was my youngest brother (in California) once shot at a robber. He had been instructed to do so by the owner of the bike shop where he worked. He missed. The owner (as principle-my brother was his agent since he fired at the owner's directions to do so) was held, along with the gun until all 12 pellets were found on the principal that it may have hit someone, directly or as a ricochet, suspect or bystander.

 

[GaryS]

I can tell you what I've read about in real cases in Texas, but it's certainly not all inclusive. The police will take the specific guns that were involved, but they will not take ALL of the guns the person owns, nor will they, as in some states, take the persons CCW permit. Nor will they, unless there is reason to, arrest the person.

All of those are common in MA if you use a firearm in self defense, so don't base your novel here.

 

[Rule3]

I think the CZ 75 or the Sig 226 is much to big a gun for a 5'7" 117lb women.

Is she a model type or a tom boy kind? A Sig 232 or similar classy 380 would mo better.

 

[Faulkner]

No indication anyone was hit and no probable cause to charge anyone, plus a rural sheriff's department . . . there is no reason to take their firearms from them. The sheriff would likely record the make, model, and serial number in his report.

 

[Texas Star]

The closest I know was my youngest brother (in California) once shot at a robber. He had been instructed to do so by the owner of the bike shop where he worked. He missed. The owner (as principle-my brother was his agent since he fired at the owner's directions to do so) was held, along with the gun until all 12 pellets were found on the principal that it may have hit someone, directly or as a ricochet, suspect or bystander.

That sounds familiar! While working private security, I was told by several business and homeowners to shoot any trespassers. I ignored that, as I knew it was illegal, unless they were menacing life or maybe property during the hours of darkness.

One client was validly afraid of arson. I was prepared to shoot to prevent that, as the home was a "dwelling" and human life and neighborhood property (with other inhabitants) was involved. Armed robbers or other home invaders or retail bandits would be fair game, too.

Once, I was stationed in a car body shop that had been seized when the owners were indicted for fencing stolen cars. I got a call from someone who told me that if I stayed there that night, I was dead. I reported the call to my boss and the police, setting up the need to defend myself if anything happened. Nothing did, but I wish that I'd had a shotgun as well as my .357. Later, another guard fired a shot at someone there. The police knew about the threats and it was in a bad part of town. The officers just cautioned him to be more sure of his target and the need before firing any more shots. No one was hit.

I suspect that a sheriff would have some discretion in the case I outlined. And LE officers would tend to support one another if they believed that my hero was in the right.

 

[saturner1]

Having lived in Texas most of my life and being very familiar with Nacogdoches Co. and city LE. I doubt that they would take their guns unless there was a body/blood trail.

 

[ACP230]

Women seem to like the Browning HP a lot.
The grip shape seems to fit everybody's hand.

My daughter and some female friends she brings shooting, on occasion,
also like my Colt Combat Commander in 9mm.

I have shot a selection of semiautos and the SIGs always felt blocky and
oversize in the grip to me. Ditto for the Beretta M9 and clones. Anybody's mileage may vary, of course.

 

[Texas Star]

I think the CZ 75 or the Sig 226 is much to big a gun for a 5'7" 117lb women.

Is she a model type or a tom boy kind? A Sig 232 or similar classy 380 would mo better.

You underestimate women. My DIL is a couple of inches taller and maybe 120-125 pounds and shoots SIG's well and can control my son's Colt .45 autos and Browning HP's well. She is a coolheaded scientist who approached the issue of guns well, and without the raw emotion that many girls have when being introduced to firearms. Her family owns guns and she has shot and cleaned her own deer.

I once wrote a story for a promotional title for Colt about Jo Anne Hall, the womens' international action pistol champ who was also a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. You may know her name as she has a Journalism degree and briefly wrote for Guns & Ammo. Jo Anne competed with Colt .45 autos and used them very well. She had a Colt .380 as a travel gun, but was very competent with a .45.

Most female police officers have to carry 9mm or heavier guns, and they must qualify.

My heroine is an immigrant from South Africa, where she first got a CCW, for protection as she worked as a paleoanthropologist in remote areas, and previously shot it out with a few "tsotsis', thugs. She is not a tomboy, per se, but knows how to live in the bush for weeks at a time and is aware of snakes and the like. She hunts and can dress her own game, and comes from a family who were winegrowers/vintners in the Cape. She is cool-headed and capable, but also very sophisticated, finishing her doctorate and is a college instructor. She has a wry, droll sense of humor, much like the hero.

She is not a country girl as you may mean. No country music on her car radio or in her CD's. More like Bach and Dido. Probably prefers Julio Iglesias to his son Enrique, despite being just 24.

She couldn't use a .380 in that scenario and come so close to hitting someone at that distance. She does a have a S&W M-60 .38 for CCW.

The only model of national fame whom I've seen closeup is Heidi Klum. I didn't concentrate on her hands, but she can probably shoot a SIG P-226 if inclined to own a gun. Other than the obvious areas of male interest, the main thing I recall about her is her finely oiled mind. I could see her thinking just what I was: if this place (a Victoria's Secret shop that was filled to the brim, with a line reaching back to the parking lot, full of fans wanting her autograph) caught fire, what would happen?

The only other models I've met were Playmates, and they ranged in size from about 5' 3" to a girl taller than I am. Of course, the runway models are also tall. I think their hands would mostly be on the large size for women. They probably average about 5'11". My daughter is 5' 7" and had to drop the idea of being a model for that cause almost as soon as we considered it. She prefers being a teacher, anyway.

My daughter is about the size of the heroine, and she can probably handle a SIG, especially with the optional short-reach trigger option. She could also operate a K-frame S&W by the time she was a teen. Alas, she isn't much into guns.

My reservation about the CZ is just that I read that many women don't have the finger length/hand size to feel comfortable wih the CZ-75 or the Beretta M-92 series. I have fairly large hands and they are just within the comfort range for me. This is, of course, in DA mode for the first shot. The trigger is then set for SA fire, with a much shorter trigger pull. But I don't want Lisa to have to cock the hammer before she can fire.

I may ask my DIL to see if she can handle her husband's CZ.
But she is a taller girl than the heroine, with probably larger hands. I do know that she likes the SIG line, esp. the P-229 and the 239.

 

[DeathGrip]

I'm having a rough time with the rifle vs. handgun thing. At 150 yards I kind of think the Lady's 9mm would be useless. I think at that distance there wouldn't be much of a gun fight even with an expert pistol shooter. You gotta respect the rifle. (Unless it's a Daisy.)

 

[Rule3]

Nothing at all against women and guns, I just thought something classier, I love CZ and Sigs but Beretta or something just has more cool factor.

Kensi Blye and Ziva David shoot P226's

 

[2152hq]

Wouldn't the Texas LEO's just want to look at and possibly shoot a few rounds through the folks guns?

How 'bout one of those FN 5.7×28mm pistols for the lady.
Very different,,. Light weight, Hi-Cap, low recoil,,
With a 20rd mag in the pistol and maybe an extra or two around,,you might make life annoying for the other guy out at 150yrs.

 

[M3Stuart]

Don't have any idea about the LE thing.

Buuuut, wouldn't it be cooler if she quick-drew a Vaquero in, say, .44 mag, fanned the hammer a few times from the hip and splattered the guy at 150 yards?

What kind of book was that again?

 

[Texas Star]

Don't have any idea about the LE thing.

Buuuut, wouldn't it be cooler if she quick-drew a Vaquero in, say, .44 mag, fanned the hammer a few times from the hip and splattered the guy at 150 yards?

What kind of book was that again?

I think perhaps you're confusing a police procedural novel with a Western movie...

I want the characters to be plausible. What shooting takes place will be pretty realistic. I don't live in Hollywood nor do I write screenplays.

Read David Lindsey's, "Spiral" and note the scene where Sgt. Haydon's partner is killed and Haydon empties his Beretta into the bushes to tag the killer. The way that was handled made it the most real shooting scene that I've encountered in literature. Part of that was Haydon's reaction to the incident.
The same author also had a very likely scene in, "Requiem For a Glass Heart" where a girl shot a corrupt Russian official whose bodyguards had just searched her. The gun was hidden in the room that she entered to entertain him intimately. Hmmm... that gun was a CZ-75!

BTW, the heroine in my book learned to shoot a handgun at long range in part because she needed to do that effectively in places like the Kalahari Desert and similar regions while studying the !Kung! (Bushmen) and looking for ancient human fossils. It'll read plausibly when I'm done.

In one of Peter O'Donnell's excellent Modesty Blaise thrillers, Modesty dropped a villain at 20 yards with a S&W .41 Magnum. I hope that was a misprint, as it'd only be remarkable (but possible) if she did it at 200 yards. Most authors aren't gun people and have no idea what a skilled pistolero can do at extended ranges, or they exaggerate that. I've met a lot of people who doubt that anyone can hit someone with a handgun beyond 25 feet!

 

[rond]

Why not give the lady a S&W 908?

 

[Alpo]

Don't have any idea about the LE thing.

Buuuut, wouldn't it be cooler if she quick-drew a Vaquero in, say, .44 mag, fanned the hammer a few times from the hip and splattered the guy at 150 yards?

What kind of book was that again?

Can't fan a Vaquero. Won't work.

 

[Rock185]

Yes, within my humble experience, any firearms involved would be impounded.

 

[Texas Star]

Why not give the lady a S&W 908?

Honestly, I don't think much of S&W autos. Not trying to be rude; I just think there are better options.

Also, coming from South Africa, she'd be more likely to have used a CZ, although UN arms sanctions have ended.


I think immigrants can bring their guns. David W. Arnold did when he brought his family over from SA to be an editor at the Petersen titles. BTW, his book, "Shoot a Handgun" is one of the best on its subject, a general introduction to new shooters. It was published here as well as in his native South Africa. I have some wood carvings of game animals that he sent me many years ago when he lived in Rhodesia. It is a pity that he died relatively young. He was one of the best gun writers I've known.

He had many first hand accounts of how the 9mm fared in battle, from the Rhodesian crisis. He preferred a Colt .45 auto, but said the 9mm generally fared quite well. But he didn't feel too bad about carrying a P-38, the issued pistol of his force.