Can a person that was convicted of a Felony (but never served one day in prison) own a firearm?
Someone I know (it’s not me, I have a CHL, and have never been in any trouble) was convicted of a Felony when he held a firearm up to a child molesters head. He basically received probation and fines. He has a felony conviction in the state of Arizona.
I told him he needs to request his record be expunged. He said there is something about a 10 year rule. I’ve never heard of such a thing. M4 lawyers please chime in. We used to call them s*it house lawyers, but if there’s a real attorney out there, that’ll do.
He has to be pardoned/expunged by the state, and as long as he is pardoned/expunged Federal law allows gun ownership, too. As part of the expungement there cannot be language that further bans his firearms ownership.
18 U.S.C. 921(a)(20)
(20) The term “crime punishable by imprisonment for a term
exceeding one year” does not include -
(A) any Federal or State offenses pertaining to antitrust
violations, unfair trade practices, restraints of trade, or other
similar offenses relating to the regulation of business
practices, or
(B) any State offense classified by the laws of the State as a
misdemeanor and punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years
or less.
What constitutes a conviction of such a crime shall be determined
in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction in which the
proceedings were held. Any conviction which has been expunged, or
set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil
rights restored shall not be considered a conviction for purposes
of this chapter, unless such pardon, expungement, or restoration of
civil rights expressly provides that the person may not ship,
transport, possess, or receive firearms.
I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll repeat what I saw/heard last Friday at the gun store while I was there getting some ammo.
Some young man (early 20’s) and his wife were trying to buy a pistol and the guy that ownes the store handed the paperwork to the young man to fill out. The young man commented that he would have her do the paperwork because he has a felony on him, so she needs to do it. The gun store owner said that if he has a felony, the gun would not be sold to them. The young guy then said that he was buying the pistol for his wife, and then corrected that the wife was buying gun to use for home protection. During a 2-3 minute whine-festival the young man dropped the word “we” about 10 times to the gun shop owner. After listening to the young man, he pulled the pistol from the counter and explained that the woman was not showing any interest in the pistol at all so far and that you (the young man) said “WE” are buying the pistol many times over and over… and that in his (store owner) opinion, they were trying to use the wife to buy a pistol for the felon. The store owner never cared or asked about what/how/why he had a felony, he just told thatm that they were not buying a pistol at this store and asked them to please leave.
So based on that little exchange, I am thinking that a felon can not have a pistol. That young guy left in a tirade of F-you’s and a whole bunch of other nice colorful words… The place fell silent for about 10 seconds and then resumed to business as usual.
Conviction is in Arizona, I’ve told him he needs to contact the Governors office. I knew there wasn’t a ten year grace period. Now I’ll show him the penal code reference.
Alaska has some interesting felon laws concerning guns, especially concerning hunting. Only my opinion but if it’s a non-violent felony then there needs to be a way for that person to get their 2nd Amendment rights reinstated to protect themselves and their family.
There is. Their record has to be expunged or they are pardoned, and then they can own guns again.
My personal feelings is if someone is released from prison then the justice people are saying this person is fit to be in society, and is safe to have access to everything out there. People can get guns without filling our a 4473, and going through a NICS check. If someone is not safe enough to be society with knowing they can obtain a firearm then they should not be released. If a person is released then they should have their full rights restored. Self-defense should be a right you have no matter what…even if you did prison time. Lots of people get caught up in stupid shit like having sex with their underage GF they later marry, and they have a conviction hanging over their head the rest of their life as a felony sex offender. But I also think rape, murder, robbery, etc should be automatic life sentences without parole. Our crime rate would drop drastically because so many of these people are repeat offenders. Let them out, and less than a year later they are back in jail for the same thing or worse. Some prisons have a return rate in the 60 and 70 percent range.
I’ve heard or maybe read somewhere a felon can write to the BATFE to ask for permission to posess a firearm for hunting purposes. It’s unlikely, but it’s possible.
One need not have gone to prison or even the county jail to be a convicted felon, at least by definition. Someone convicted of a felony is a felon, but they may have only been sentenced to probation or the like depending upon the severity of the incident.
In making the penal code link I assumed he now lives in Texas because that is where you listed your location as - obviously that link won’t help him if he’s still in Arizona. State laws vary widely; he needs to talk to an Arizona lawyer.
Arizona may have something similar to Texas’s deferred adjudication - if so he may have served probation but never actually been formally convicted. Many people, even those who have served deferred adjudication sentences, don’t know the difference. Again, he should really ask an Arizona attorney, or at least learn some google-fu.
I don’t know how it works in AZ, but in many states you cannot “expunge” a conviction - that process, if available at all, is only for charges/arrests that did not result in conviction, the idea being to keep the person from having a public “record” when there isn’t a conviction.
Getting a pardon from a governor is about as likely as wandering onto a porn set and being asked to “guest star” opposite Jenna Jameson. It doesn’t happen too often.
In all likelihood, this person needs to talk to an attorney in AZ and file some sort of petition in an AZ court to get his rights restored. He’s still a convicted felon, he’s just allowed to own guns if that gets granted.
Here is a sample pleading form I found with a quick google search:
People are convicted of felonies every day and sentenced to probation or some other type of supervision and not spend one day in jail unless they violate the terms of their probation/supervision.
On a side note. This was clearly an attempted Straw Purchase which is also a felony. The Gun Shop owner should have called the authorities on this guy because it seems to me he should be behind bars. This guy knows what he is trying to do is illegal otherwise he would not be trying to circumvent it.
On another side note… stronger man than me. If I had a gun to a person’s head who molested my kid… let’s just say the good Lord would have to do some pretty serious talking to me.