  We examine the possibility that gamma-ray bursts arise from sources in the
Oort comet cloud, basing most of our arguments on accepted models for the
formation and spatial distribution of the cloud. We identify three severe
problems with such models: (1) There is no known mechanism for producing bursts
that can explain the observed burst rate and energetics without violating other
observational constraints. (2) The bright source counts cannot be reconciled
with standard models for the phase-space distribution of objects in the Oort
cloud. (3) The observed isotropy of the available burst data is inconsistent
with the expected angular distribution of sources in the Oort cloud. We
therefore assert that Oort cloud models of gamma-ray bursts are extremely
implausible.
