Ex cons gets guns anyway...
I’ve worked around quite a few ex-felons and trust me, they are armed to the teeth.
If they have served their time why not?
Which is a flat out lie! Santorum proves he is a gun grabber and lies to claim it is a pro gun position.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more print on what Santorum said in that debate.
The writer first alleges that the Republicans favor felons’ getting guns, then asks what the candidates think about this. Why is he asking, if he already thinks that he knows?
Actually, there are different sorts of felonies: violent and non-violent, for example. Some are technical, like accidentally falling afoul of gun regulations in a state like NJ, and (under “no tolerance” rules), getting convicted on a technicality. Such as case is different from that of a freed murderer.
For the record, I disagree with Santorum on this one. Violent felons should not be given gun rights, nor should they get the right to vote. It would be good for people to know that if you become a criminal, you may loose certain rights. There is nothing peculiar about that.
Giving felons the right to vote can be labelled whatever: in Congress, they frequently name bills in a way which could not pass the regs for “truth in labeling”! The “Martin Luther King Voting Rights Bill” is clearly such a misleading title. So is “Job Creation Act.”
Guns and ballots, or neither. Actually, if someone is too dangerous to own a gun, they’re too dangerous to let out of prison because there’s nothing that can reasonably be expected to keep them from getting guns as soon as they get out. So don’t let them out unless and until you’d be happy that they’re voting and owning guns both. Modify sentences to take these facts into account, if necessary.
Before I toss those laws, I’d like to examine carefully why they were set in place in the first place. Was it just a dumb mistake? I doubt it.
the past few decades, the law has gone from felon exclusion...to misdemeanor for domestic violence in the courts....
crimes of domestic violence which men are so easily and often accused of by menopausal or scorned women....has become a joke.
the constitution does not limit constitutional rights because of criminal history.
felons should not be able to vote or own guns. Period. I don’t think pedphiles, drug dealers, murderers, and rapists should have a voice in government. I would restore their RTKBA before I would let them have sway over our legislative bodies.
Anybody who cannot be trusted with a gun should not be running around loose. End of discussion!
Tie the two together and the RAT states wont likely be looking to let felons vote to bump up their voter base. No way would they trust their felons to own guns. That would kill the issue dead in it's tracks in liberal states.
Conservative states may very well have the brains to give both rights back to those felons that pose no threat to society.
My father can’t own a gun or vote simply because of a DUI many years ago. We are far too quick to take people’s rights. Once out from under sentence, all rights should be restored.
We’ve also become quick to make everything a felony for the express purpose of taking their rights.
What happened to the concept of no taxation without representation? If a person isn’t allowed the fully rights of a citizen, why should they feel any responsibility to our society?
Self defense is a basic human right, like food or shelter. It should not be denied lightly. If you trust them to walk around and drive a car, why not? If they are not safe holding a gun then they should be still in jail, or in the ground.
yes, they should. Once they have served their time, they should be restored, not marked forever like in some dictatorship communist hell hole.
They should not be allowed to vote.
Santorum was pandering to the black community when he suggested this.
Repeat offenders, anyone?
Some things one does have consequences. A few felons go on to live good lives and stay out of prison. That should be its own reward.
But they gave up the right to vote.
As for guns, you know the bumper sticker.
Unless post-prison rights to gun ownership, voting, residency, etc is stipulated during sentencing (or part of any agreed upon parole conditions)...then any additional constraints to Constitutional rights amounts to double jeopardy and is unconstitutional.
I always thought that one’s “debt to society” was fulfilled upon completion of one’s sentence. That being the case, all rights should be restored. If we are so worried about a violent crime being committed by the excon due to his violent past that we keep him stripped of his rights even though he has completed his sentence then we should have hanged him from the getgo.