SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb
When a disabled Navy veteran living in Glendale, Ariz., got into a dispute with a neighbor that resulted in the vet’s guns being confiscated by local police, the Second Amendment Foundation jumped into the fray, providing funds for the legal battle.
Fifty-six-year-old Rick Bailey received a medical discharge from the Navy and had to retire from his job in the tech industry due to a disability from a back injury. So, when a neighbor allegedly told Glendale police that Bailey had threatened to harm him in a dispute over the neighbor’s dump trucks parked in the cul-de-sac where both of their homes are located, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb was quick to note, “He couldn’t physically harm anybody.”
Gottlieb, himself a veteran, told TGM that the neighbor in this dispute has also obtained a harassment order against Bailey. This all stems from complaints Bailey made to police about the dump trucks and odors from those vehicles.
The neighbor was apparently made to move the trucks, but he brought them back on weekends. Bailey indicated to The Blaze that the neighbor did this apparently “just to irritate us.”
In mid-March, police showed up at Bailey’s residence following a complaint that the disabled veteran had threatened to shoot him. They confiscated Bailey’s collection of 28 firearms valued at more than $25,000. Bailey wants his guns back and SAF is going to help out.
“Mr. Bailey is devastated by this situation,” Gottlieb said. “We seem to live in an environment when someone’s life can be turned upside down on an allegation that should have been thoroughly investigated before any action was ordered by a court.”
The dispute unfolded over the course of several months until Bailey called police about possibly toxic chemical fumes coming from the neighbor’s property.
SAF is working with Chandler, Arizona attorney Mark J. Victor to secure the return of Bailey’s firearms and help solve his predicament. Bailey’s collection of 28 firearms has an estimated value of more than $25,000 and took more than a decade for him to collect.
“This situation appears to have gotten out of control,” Gottlieb observed. “A generation ago, neighbors solved this kind of dispute over a cup of coffee or a Sunday barbecue. We’re helping Bailey in his appeal of the judge’s order so he can not only reclaim his valuable firearms, but also some of his dignity as well.”
