Posted on 01/02/2016 12:17:07 AM PST by VeniVidiVici
The Minnesota Court of Appeals held up a statute that defines BB guns as firearms when it comes to prohibited persons. The decision comes as bad news for defendant David Lee Haywood, 37, who was found guilty of possessing a firearm and now faces a five-year sentence.
Police searched Haywoods car after discovering that he was in violation of a no-contact order with a passenger during a 2013 traffic stop. A compact air pistol was found in his glove compartment. Haywood was previously convicted of felony drug possession and was therefore not allowed to own any firearms or airguns in Minnesota.
Haywood's airgun, an Umarex Walther CP99 Compact, uses CO2 cartridges to shoot .177-caliber BBs. The appellate court ruling follows previous decisions maintaining that airguns, when in the possession of felons, are no different then firearms.
The jury was instructed to treat the airgun as a firearm during deliberation. Normally state law makes an exception to the definition of firearm specifically for BB guns and airguns firing a projectile smaller that .18-caliber.
(Excerpt) Read more at gunsamerica.com ...
No fire/combustion = not a firearm. Wacky judges!
Notice the smoke...
I agree but that is federal law, it is possible the state of Mn. did upon this mans conviction and probable plea bargain included air guns being prohibited. In other words, state law violation.
And he could poke an eye out with that thing.
The law is wrong to treat this BB gun as a firearm. The judge was wrong to direct the jury to pretend something that was not true. The jury was wrong to listen to the judge. This man should not have been prosecuted.
State laws can be quite interesting. For instance, a convicted felon in Texas can own a shotgun for his home five years after sentence completion. He would still be in violation of federal law but not state law.
He broke conditions of his parole, case closed.
Don’t you think if you saw this guy walk into your liquor store with this gun that you would feel differently? The kid in Cleveland certainly found out the hard way that a toy gun can very easily cause the same alarm and fear of personal harm as a real gun.
Fake on left, real on right
Even if he had it for criminal purposes, the law should specifically ban look-alike weapons for felons if they want to prosecute him for that. It's not a firearm, and they should not prosecute by pretending it is something that it is not.
If he used it in a robbery pretending it was a weapon, I would be okay with shooting him or with prosecuting armed robbery (if the armed robbery statute specifically included look-alike weapons). What I object to is the imprecise reading of any law.
Oh, but the statute defined firearm to include bb guns. The court was only carrying out the letter of the law. The court would be failing in its duty if it did otherwise.
If the state wants to list bb guns or air rifles as a prohibited item for felons to own, the same as firearms, that is their right under the 10th amendment. I don’t agree with it but that is a states right.
You're right; I misread the story. The legislators are wrong to change the definition of firearms instead of changing the laws that restrict firearms for prohibited persons, but the judge was correct to apply this poorly-written law as he did.
Minnesota - Brain-free leftist aholes at all levels of government there.
And yet the court disagrees with you
The law in general is a farce.
Glorified dog and pony show.
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