Posted on 05/23/2002 9:57:30 AM PDT by Osage Orange
The U.S. Gun Grab
by Frank Miniter
You won't believe who has lost their right to own firearms.
You might think only murderers and rapists get their firearms taken away. Well, think again. Here are just a few things that could lead to the confiscation of your deer rifle: drag racing in Pennsylvania (it’s a felony in the Keystone State), becoming a fugitive from justice (not showing up for traffic court counts), having a protection order placed against you (a shoving match with your neighbor can result in one of these) and getting convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence (a fist fight with your brother qualifies).
Basically, if you plead guilty to or are convicted of any federal law that can be punished by one year or more in jail, your state has the right to confiscate your .30/06. Likewise, if you plead guilty or are convicted of a state misdemeanor that is punishable by two years in prison, the state can take your Winchester.
Still feel invulnerable? So did Donald G. Arnold, a private investigator who was named a “citizen of the year” in Maryland in 2000 for his work helping the police to stop drug dealers in Baltimore. Arnold recently went to renew his carry permit in Maryland and was denied, because in 1969, after returning from Vietnam, he got into a scuffle with a college student who called him a “baby killer.” Arnold went to court without a lawyer and received a 60-day suspended sentence and unsupervised probation.
What Arnold didn’t know was that 30 years later the Maryland Attorney General would claim that a 1996 decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals allows the state to disqualify a person from possessing firearms based on the sentence he could have received. (At press time two separate bills designed to restore gun rights to people like Arnold were in committee in the Maryland House of Delegates.)
In another case, Thomas Lamar Bean, a Texas resident and former gun dealer, was arrested in Mexico after a box of ammunition was found in his vehicle. Bean was convicted, spent time in a Mexican prison and then came home to find that he could not possess a firearm in the U.S. because of the felony conviction. When Bean petitioned to gain his rights back, he ran into a bureaucratic logjam: a decade ago Congress axed the budget for these requests. Bean, however, won a Texas lawsuit to force the ATF to renew his gun rights, but that didn’t end his battle. At press time the U.S. Supreme Court was due to decide whether federal judges can even restore gun rights.
So before you plead guilty to any criminal violation, get the facts. (In some states public exposure—tinkling on the rose bushes, for example—carries a one- to five-year sentence.) How vulnerable do you feel now?
Did Outdoor Life just figure this out?
That is why I can't support NRAs cheerleading of Project Exile or the "We need to enforce existing laws" mantra. Perhaps Emerson will get some of this mess cleaned up.
Or knives. Or bats. Or freedom. Until they have paid their debt to society, at which time their rights should be restored. If they transgress again, then the punishment should be multiplied.
In any case, my right to keep and bear arms should not be infringed in the slightest degree because someone else breaks the law.
LOL - right. You didn't read the fine print in the memo which mentioned that the government reserves the right to decide which guns are "suitable for criminal use" and to ban their ownership. Ummm, just which guns would that be?
baaa-aaa-aaaa baaa-aaa-aaaa
That's because you're an elitist who wants to make it up as we go along rather than refer to the constitution. You also have not the slightest grasp on the concept of human rights. All gun grabbers use the same idiot-logic. "If someone does something I think is bad, let's take that bad person's guns away".
Have you, "government shrinker" done any bad or stupid things in your life? Good, let's permanently take your right to protect your family away.
Yeah, let's add "drag racing" to the long list of deeds that will make people gun criminals. This way somebody who was caught drag racing on some Georgia backroad when he was 17 can have his family slaughtered by criminals when he's 37.
Can you people do me a favor and use your effen head before you start pecking away at the keyboard?
So long as Americans can be convinced that they need to apply for a privilege to exercise a right they can expect to be denied their rights.
Boonie Rat
MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66
Do you think ex-felons should be able to own guns. There is not mention of "felony convictions" in the Second Ammendment so I guess that means yes. Courts have ruled this is a reasonable limitation. But then they say that about outright handgun bans to in some states. What is your opinion?
I would add "when conducted on public roads". I have no problem with NHRA meets, salt flat timing runs, sand drags, etc.
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