They do make up their own rules as they go along. I'm sure the government-sponsored departments of youth and family services (whatever name they use in the various states) are even worse, but I had a run-in with a private social worker when my wife and I were adopting a few years ago.
We had to undergo a series of lengthy and invasive interviews with a licensed "adoption services" social worker as part of the home study evaluation process. I had thought "home study" was basically just a one-time, white glove inspection of the house. Oh, no! It's an entire process, involving much time, energy, and money (mine). They also probe every orifice of your personal history.
I'm a Vietnam veteran. She wanted official clearance reports from the police departments of every place I have ever lived, including every station to which I was assigned while in the Army. I served in Vietnam. She wanted a document from the Vietnamese government certifying that I had never been arrested in that country. I pointed out that the government in power when I was there no longer exists and the current government of Vietnam wasn't likely to have records of what sexual or child abuse charges the former government of South Vietnam might have had for American servicemen. She finally settled on a report from the U.S. Army archives saying they had no records of me doing anything naughty.
Then came the guns. Even before we got to her actual home visit, she freaked when she learned I own (gasp!) GUNZ! She told us that ("of course") all firearms have to be locked up. I pointed out that, since at the time we had no children living with us, my guns did NOT have to be locked up. However, they were anyway, so she didn't take on that argument.
Then she said ALL ammunition had to be locked up. I again pointed out that there is no law requiring that I keep ammunition under lock and key. Her response, after some sniffing and coughing and hemming and hawing, was (get ready, here it comes) "Well, WE require it." (She said the same thing about a carbon monoxide detector.)
So I found a company that had moved out of its old headquarters and left a bunch of furniture, begged the site manager to give me one of those 2-door black steel office cabinets, threw a cheap padlock on it, and I had an ammo cabinet. In fact, it didn't hold nearly all my ammo, but she didn't recognize 50-cal ammo cans as what they are so she saw a cabinet with some boxes of "bullets" in it, and she was satisfied.
But they do make this stuff up as they go. After all, "It's for the children."
