Actually, the law is more straightforward than that. Under 18 USC 922(g)(6), it is a federal felony for any person discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions to possess any firearm or ammunition, and a felony under 922(d)(6) to sell or otherwise dispose a firearm to a person while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the person was dishonorably discharged.. No need to examine whether the dishonorable discharge was the result of a general court martial or the result of a felony conviction.
The question will be who gave him this gun or sold it to him. Hard to believe it was an FFL: I have to assume an FBI check would turn up a dishonorable discharge, and it’s hard to imagine an FFL would risk getting caught selling a gun under the table.
That leaves only a few possibilities: Maybe he bought it from a non FFL at a gun show or that he found on Craig’s List (which would add fuel to the push for “universal background checks”). Maybe he bought it from a non FFL who knew him, who will now have to answer questions as to how he didn’t have reason to know this guy was dishonorably discharged. Or maybe his Antifa buddies gave it to him, which will have obvious ramifications. Or maybe the reports are inaccurate and he was not dishonorably discharged (that report does come from CBS, after all).
Thanks! I hope that comes out in the media, at least on Fox.
Or maybe he brought the gum legally before the dishonorable discharge.