Felons Finding It Easy to Get Gun Rights Reinstated

[SecularMotion]

In February 2005, Erik Zettergren came home from a party after midnight with his girlfriend and another couple. They had all been drinking heavily, and soon the other man and Mr. Zettergren’s girlfriend passed out on his bed. When Mr. Zettergren went to check on them later, he found his girlfriend naked from the waist down and the other man, Jason Robinson, with his pants around his ankles.

Enraged, Mr. Zettergren ordered Mr. Robinson to leave. After a brief confrontation, Mr. Zettergren shot him in the temple at point-blank range with a Glock-17 semiautomatic handgun. He then forced Mr. Robinson’s hysterical fiancée, at gunpoint, to help him dispose of the body in a nearby river.

It was the first homicide in more than 30 years in the small town of Endicott, in eastern Washington. But for a judge’s ruling two months before, it would probably never have happened.

For years, Mr. Zettergren had been barred from possessing firearms because of two felony convictions. He had a history of mental health problems and friends said he was dangerous. Yet Mr. Zettergren’s gun rights were restored without even a hearing, under a state law that gave the judge no leeway to deny the application as long as certain basic requirements had been met. Mr. Zettergren, then 36, wasted no time retrieving several guns he had given to a friend for safekeeping.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/us/felons-finding-it-easy-to-regain-gun-rights.html?_r=1&hp

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Related thread here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x479195

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Yeah, but...

this isn't the gungeon, so those regulars cannot pile on without repercussion. Some people want to discuss issues without invoking the wrath of a swarm.

[iverglas]

5. it wasn't the gungeon

... but it is now.

Just another duplicate thread created by the flushing of a thread to the Guns forum without regard for discussions ongoing here in threads on identical topics ...

[one-eyed fat man]

6. Why not?

You can't discuss carpentry if you mention nail guns or cauking guns without it going to the Gungeon.

[gejohnston]

7. what repercussion?

a two sided conversation is the wrath of a swarm?

[iverglas]

9. hahahahaha: what repercussion?

Good question.

[Doctor_J]

3. The right wingers have taken over the courts on every issue

The Citizens United debacle also manifests in gun rights, pollution, safety regulations, and on and on. CU is sort of the crank that keeps the gears of corruption and fascism turning.

[Patiod]

4. But that's how it should be - they can't vote, but they can be armed

The 2nd amendment trumps all.

[alp227]

11. When felons finish their sentences, you can't just pick and choose which civil rights they re-earn.

So I'm sorta doubtful about the lifetime gun ban for people convicted of domestic violence or felonies given that the 2nd amendment protects individuals' right to own guns.

[DWC]

8. Talk about ancient history

This anecdotal event occurred almost seven (7) years ago. I have no concept of the reason for this OP other than to illustrate that really stupid people do really stupid things and we don't have to look past last week for examples of stupid, deadly things done with and without guns.

Semper Fi,

[iverglas]

10. no concept indeed

Didn't actually read the article, did you?

The Times examined hundreds of restoration cases in several states, among them Minnesota, where William James Holisky II, who had a history of stalking and terrorizing women, got his gun rights back last year, just six months after completing a three-year prison sentence for firing a shotgun into the house of a woman who had broken up with him after a handful of dates. She and her son were inside at the time of the shooting.

“My whole family’s convinced that at some point he’ll blow a gasket and that he’ll come and shoot someone,” said Vicky Holisky-Crets, Mr. Holisky’s sister.

Also last year, a judge in Cleveland restored gun rights to Charles C. Hairston, who had been convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina in 1971 for shooting a grocery store owner in the head with a shotgun. He also had another felony conviction, in 1995, for corruption of a minor.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. that is not how it works in the state where I reside. Their right to vote is automatically

reinstated when their obligations to society have been fulfilled but, their right to keep and bear arms is left up to the discretion of the Sheriff of the county. The person in question must apply to the Sheriff for his consideration.