It really is simple, as I said. If you don't think they should be able to vote, own a gun, or hang around schoolchildren after their prison time, make it PART OF THE SENTENCE. The restriction of rights has to be done through the due process of law. But it's not.
If a person is convicted, they are sentenced, in a court of law, to a punishment. And they should only receive the punishment they are sentenced to in a court of law- no more, no less.
It is part of the sentence. It is applied 'en-mass' when a crime is classifed as misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, or felony. Felony means you have the tag 'felon' tied around your neck for the rest of your life. However, the purpose of this isn't to give you a paperwork version of a scarlet letter, it is so that additional parts of the sentence continue to apply to you FOR LIFE, even though your actual physical incarceration may end after just a few years. That's why most of the time it is called 'felony conviction' because you are getting jail time + lifetime status as a felon.
Nah, he's no saint, he's as guilty as the rest of us.
I wasn't talking about youthful indiscretions. I was referring to the thousands of laws that exist that hardly anyone knows about. These laws can be used to deprive the most honest person of his rights. Think if the more obscure provisions of the Internal Revenue Code or the Lacey Act as examples, its hard NOT to be a potential felon these days.
I'm not prepared to say that some 65 year old tourist who brought a fish skeleton mounted on a plaque back as a souvenir of her trip to Honduras should be deprived of the right to keep a pistol at the side of her bed as protection. If that's "breaking the social contract", we need a new contract.
Again, while you are correct that there are a thousand and one obscure laws that can trip a person up, very few of them are FELONIES. And that is exactly why such a distinction exists. Only a very small segment of the Lacey Act deals with felony level criminal activity.
Same with all your pot smoking buddies (and I wasn't one of you druggy hippies either) It's not a felony unless you are selling it, intending to sell it, or transporting more than an oz of it. Like I said, I was never a pot head, and have absolutely no shame in that statment, so I don't know for sure, but I suspect that a couple of joints is going to be less than an oz.
But if you are doing illegal drugs, don't come crying to me about how harsh your criminal penalty is. Buying pot is a lot different than messing up some math on your tax form or catching a fish and bringing it home unidentified only to find out it is some rare protected species.
Now, don't get me wrong. I disagree with a system that would allow a speeding ticket, (or a restraining order) or other misdemeanors to limit anyone's rights, be it gun ownership, voting, whatever.
I do, however, agree in being able to classifiy some crimes as severe enough that in addition to very serious jail time (5+ years) if you are let out, you will have some restrictions placed on you for life. In general, I am in favor of even longer sentences.
Between Black and White there lie numerous shades of Grey. As Gator said, most of us have unknowingly committed a felony at some point in our lives. Felonies can result from such mundane things as transporting a firearm to the range. Maybe your late for work, alarm clock didn't go off, and you break three traffic laws in your haste to get there, if your late again you lose your job, you have just committed a felony in many jurisdictions. Things that happen between men and women behind closed doors can be felonious.
you are going to have to explain to me how transporting a firearm to the range is a felony, or breaking 3 traffic laws is a felony.
regarding certain sexual acts as being a felony, not here they are not. The sodomy laws in MN were thrown out about 10 years ago, and even before then, they weren't felonies, simply misdemeanors or gross misdemeanors. However, this line of reasoning to me simply states we must be careful with which crimes rise to the level of felony, not that we need to cut felons slack. Maybe we need a catagory inbetween gross misdemeanor and felony, but that doesn't change the fact that someone who is an axe murderer at age 19 and gets out of jail at age 39 due to good behavior should be able to buy a firearm. I say keep him in there longer, and if you do let him out, it's more of a life-time parole, he never gets his full rights back.
To all of you who think that as soon as you serve your given time, the slate should be wiped clean. Does that hold for pedophiles? Should an elementary school teacher provider who molested children be able to walk right out of jail and get a job as a playground monitor or a janitor at a day-care center? Or are we allowed to let the person out after 10 years, but still apply some restrictions to him such as 'no unsupervised interaction with children for the rest of your life'
) - a third of 22,000 felons had their rights restored - or approximately 7,333. Of those, 69 committed serious felonies after having their rights restored. That amounts to about 
