In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans police confiscated guns found in homes. While it would be defensible to take them so as not to leave them lying around for looters to find, they also took them from people. The NRA sued and the police agreed to return the weapons. But only if the owner has a receipt or a sworn affidavit with the serial number.
Now, logically, since everyone pretty well knows that records would be unlikely to survive or be legible, how the heck are people supposed to be able to meet these standards? Since at this point, only about seven of the 700 or so guns have been returned, it's fair to say almost nobody. On top of which, if you ask for your gun back, the police do a background check on you. Effectively, the police have gotten away with a) seizing legally owned guns, b) seizing property without a warrant and c) performing additional checks on citizens who try to reclaim property.
The police say "some' of those guns were found to have been used in crimes. How many? This is more terrible response from a department that already showed it was badly run.
