If a person that has lived a good honorable life.
At what point or should they be forgiven for a felony self defense?
Should the background checks go back the entire life of a person or should there be only so many years allowed?
If it is self-defense, how is it a felony? As to being forgiven? That is a spiritual issue, not law. As to whether or not a felon “should” be “allowed” to own a firearm, it was legal until the 1939 FFA that made felons “prohibited” persons. That list of prohibited persons has only grown since then.
Has making the list of prohibited persons prevented any of them from illegally obtaining firearms? Maybe, but reading the crime reports, we know vast numbers of them illegally obtain and use firearms. The other issue, like drugs, the law makes mere possession a crime.
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That one is convicted of a felony belies ”a good honorable life.”
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If a person gets jumped by 3-4 others and uses an object laying around to even the odds. Yes it can be a felony assault.
If a person gets jumped by 3-4 others and uses an object laying around to even the odds. Yes it can be a felony assault.
If it is charged as felony assault and convicted, then presumably it was either not actual self-defense, or the person needed a better attorney. Self-defense is not assault, by its very nature and meaning, it is defense.
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@James485, you’re trying to set up a no-win circumstance. If the state declares you guilty of a felony, it dosn’t matter if it’s ”felony dishwashing.” it’s a felony, representing that you have violated a law of sufficient severity to be classified as a felony.
You (in your example, not necessarily you) want to rely on an ”honorable life” to be forgiven of that crime. That is a matter for the courts, a judge, a governor, or the president.
What exactly are you attempting to accomplish with this thread?
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This is what happened to my brother. He went back to court and the judge told him the case was to old to open up and re-examine. That it would be a burden on the commonwealth. This happened 38 years ago and he has lived a good honorable life.
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@James485 - If you are looking for opinions here, we can give them. If you are looking for a solution, it appears that without expensive legal assistance, that door is closed. Which commonwealth?
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It depends.
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I do not believe any state would, I forget the legal term, give back the RKBA for a violent felony. None of our inalienable rights should be “legally” revoked to begin with. As I stated, that slippery slope began in 1939 and has only increased its height and gradient since.
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Once you do the time for a crime it should go back to having rights again. In Texas once you’ve finished prison and probation you are allowed to have guns.
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This sort of thing happens in the Communist Republic of New Jersey. I know someone who defended themselves in a domestic violence situation and stabbed her abuser. She was charged with a misdemeanor since Jersey has pretty much 0 tolerance for self defense. They say she should have just run away, even though there is evidence of her being put into the hospital from him. The cops were called several times but there was nothing that they would do… Because of this she has a domestic violence misdemeanor making it that much harder for her to obtain a ccw license and just about impossible to pass a background check.
As unfortunate as this situation is it’s common in states with “duty to retreat” laws.
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Agreed, once you’ve done what ever time you were sentenced to you have paid your debt to society and all rights should be restored. Except pedos…
That’s Kobayashi Maru, in essence it’s a no win situation unless you cheat, ergo a Biden win!
Sounds like there is a legal question mixed in with a hypothetical social question.
Legally… It’s either self-defense or it isn’t. There is no such thing as a “felony self-defense”. If, in your example, someone was jumped by 3-4 people and they picked up an improvised weapon at hand to defend themselves with… and got convicted of felony assault there are only a few viable possibilities…
- the 3-4 jumpers are really good liars
- the 3-4 jumpers had way better attorneys
- there is way more to the story, or context we don’t have
- the story is false
There are some avenues with which you can get your rights restored, maybe @MikeBKY knows the proper name of the process. I suspect it varies state-to-state. It is also quite likely an expensive and time-consuming process.
As for the hypothetical question…
I do believe in most circumstances there should be a process by which a felon has a clear and easy and direct path to getting all their rights back. The checkbox “Have you ever been convicted of a felony” on employment application forms has done an incalculable amount of damage. Once you have “paid your debt to society” you should be able to rejoin completely. Interestingly, Amy Comey Barrret spoke about this in a case where she rendered an opinion where she thought keeping firearms away from felons (i believe the context was non-violent felons but don’t quote me on that) was unconstitutional.
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Thanks for taking me @Harvey. The process to get gun rights restored usually requires a pardon from the Governor or an expungement from a court. Whether a charge can be expunged is dependent upon the law of the state. For instance, most Class D felonies can be expunged in Kentucky unless they are violent crimes or involve domestic violence. All assault charges in Kentucky are considered violent crimes and cannot be expunged.
This is a political question and would need to be addressed through legislation. Under federal and Kentucky law, there is no expiration on a conviction, felony, misdemeanor or violation.
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MA.
No biggie I was just wondering about at what point a man can be forgiven for crimes if he has proven himself worthy or should he be chastised for life.
Not all felonies go to jail.
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This man never went to jail.