My understanding, and I am definitely not a lawyer and could be wrong, is that living in the same residence would likely not be constructive possession if the firearm is secured such that the felon does not have access (such as carried on the person of the lawful possessor or locked in a safe to which the felon does not have access).
Are there any cases where a properly secured firearm in the same house has been ruled illegal that you can share?
Here is an example of not (on appeal) constructive possession for a felon being in a house where a firearm is present
(Edit: For anybody whom this personally applies, your absolute best idea is to ask a lawyer in your state. This may cost you money. Worth it. None of us can give you as good an answer or even close when compared to a lawyer you speak to personally in that jurisdiction)
I personally donāt need to worry about it either, but I come across the question often enough I am rather interested in having the best non-lawyer (because Iām not a lawyer) answer possible. Iām always interested in finding more resources, the more I learn the more I realize how much there is to know that I donāt know yet.
Is there a particular state you have in mind when you state that living in the same house as a firearm will be constructive possession, and is there a specific law or case you can reference for that? The sources I am able to find, including the video above, seem to lean towards not being constructive possession if the firearm is locked in a safe to which the felon does not know the combination/have access.
I ask to learn, I do come across this exact question often enough that I do want the best (not being a lawyer) possible answer possible and it helps if I bring a resource/reference with me
(as in, I donāt want my answer to be wrong, so if there is something out there saying my answer is wrong, I want to see it so I can change my answer)
I highly doubt in the amount of time that you Googled the number of states I did as it took me a couple of hours. I found dozens of cases that directly contradicted each other.
The primary deciding point was how much additional circumstantial evidence there was for a jury to consume. There is no 100% indicator of the successful use of for the Prosecutor or the Defendant. Each state had successes. Each state had failures.
As was stated in the very USCCA video you linked. Tom Grieve pointed out, specifically, it was predicated on just how much effort the police or prosecutor wanted to put forth in putting the defendant away.
As a for instance Tom Grieve, said to prove that someone has potential control over an item in a locked safe they would do a forensic investigation for DNA, hair, prints, or anything that could prove you had potential control of a safe.
Feel free to skip any of my posts. I am a risk adverse person, so it is not worth it to me to risk a potential prosecution.
My takeaway from what Tom said was, when the felon stated he had access to the gun, knew the gun was in the safe, and knew the combination to the safe, it was up to the effort (that was the scenario given when talking about effort, felon has safe access) I didnāt take that as applying to when the felon does not have access because the gun is locked in a safe to which the felon does not have a combination/access.
The DNA evidence would, my take, point to the felon having actually exerted control over the firearm (how the DNA got there), but, I havenāt seen any reference to DNA evidence being used in a conviction
Iām still trying to find a statute or case law/example of a conviction for a felon being or living in a residence where a locked/secured firearm is present (not a case where the felon knows the combination to the safe or the firearm is not secured)
I am not going to argue minutia with you the OP was about a car I posted the law in Oregon concerning Constructive Possession in a car in Oregon. I then added about a house.
Roger that. You have a good answer for in the car in Oregon. OP did in fact initially ask about access in the car assuming passenger is legally allowed to own a firearm so a felon in a residence is aā¦a bit off track lol
Canāt really avoid the minutia though, the law is nothing if not minutia
That would be up to the courts to prove. If the firearm is locked in a safe to which the felon does not have accessā¦there doesnāt seem to be access for the courts to prove
