But that classification of a cap-n-ball revolver is NOT true in every state....,
What you are hearing is old law, still being repeated, because
Socialist Damocrats don't care about factual accuracy.
Back in the 1990's, when I first started as an LEO, the fact that
Convicted Persons including Felons, were prohibited from firearm possession, and the fact that cap-n-ball revolver repros were in the legal category of "antique firearms"...,convicted persons were not prohibited their use. Nor were they prohibited the use of muzzleloading rifle and shotgun repros that copied antique designs.
Because the legal threshold was at that time, and still is
"Have you been convicted of any crime where you could have been sentenced to more than 12 months in prison?" This phrase includes misdemeanors that have a possible penalty of more than 12 months in jail, AND for folks living on the East Coast in one of the original 13 colonies such as Maryland where I am...,
Common Law.
So fellows charged with Domestic Battery were constantly pleading guilty to the lesser charge of
Common Law-simple assault, which only required the person "putting the victim in fear", not actually striking the victim. It wasn't a felony, and the judge would not give incarceration as a sentence...,
BUT the judge COULD HAVE given more than 12 months incarceration.
Which meant that anybody who plead to this Common Law charge then lost the ability to legally buy a modern firearm, and had to surrender his already owned firearms to the court or to the police.
So there were guys who had plead to this charge decades in the past, with the former wife now long gone, and had never been in trouble since, BUT they were limited to hunting with muzzleloaders and if they wanted a self-defense firearm they had to use some sort of black powder repro.
Well this changed when the Feds included that folks convicted of a crime where the sentence could be more than 12 months, cannot possess "ammunition or ammunition components". So possession of black powder or a substitute is a "component" as far as my state is concerned, and thus the updated Federal version of the law prohibits all those convicted of possession a
loaded muzzleloader or cap-n-ball revolver. This doesn't stop a convicted criminal from using such a gun, but then again a lot of them are using air-soft handguns, so...,
So in every state..., the person who was convicted of a crime with a possible sentence of more than 12 months cannot possess the ammo nor ammo components. Period.
I know a few fellows who said, "I'll take my chances", and others who switched to bow-hunting, but the majority gave up their black powder stuff.
LD
