« Santa Clara, CA, sheriff's officials, and Apple's chief security officer indicted for gun permit bribery | Main | LA destroys firearms collection, will wind up paying for it »
New Third Circuit case that might be headed for the Supremes
Jonathan Turley has thoughts. It involves an as-applied challenge to the GCA ban on convicted felons, in the context of a person convicted of tax evasion.
2 Comments | Leave a comment
It's important to note that even if a state classifies a crime as a misdemeanor, if it is punishable by more than one year it is considered a felony for the purposes of the GCA.
This is exemplified in one of the footnotes in Binderup:
"Finally, library theft in Pennsylvania constitutes a (federally disabling) misdemeanor of the first degree—punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment—if the value of the material is $150 or more. 18 Pa. Stat. and Cons. Stat. Ann. § 3929.1."
It's absurd to think that such crimes merit permanent disarmament.
As to bar for felony crime shifts ever lower (one N.J. town tried to make it a felony to leave your trash can on the street for more than 24 hours and VA has made driving more than 20 mph over the speed limit a felony) this really needs to be remedied, otherwise virtually every citizen will stand convicted of some sort of felony crime.