An AWB Legality Question?????????

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cslinger

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Ok first let me start off by saying that I am asking this for purely educational purposes and if you know me you would know that I take great care to keep my firearms 100% legal in every way. I am not trolling for help in breaking any law.

Second, this is not something I need to contact a lawyer about since I am not looking at doing anything I was just curious if anybody on the forum knows or has a answer to this.

My question is let's say someone is in possession of a bunch of CURRENTLY Illegal bobbles, you know really dangersous stuff like LEO ONLY capacity magazines, maybe a deadly folding or collapseable stock, semi auto pistolgripped 9 shot street howitzer and who knows maybe this beast even has come into possession of a dreaded post ban flash hider having, bayonet baby sticking, black rifle.

Ok so as of TODAY our boy above is technically looking at big time jail/fines should he actually be caught and prosecuted.........lets put aside the fact that unless he actually commits a real crime the chances of being caught and prosecuted are negligable.

So let's say our boy get caught bringing all his toys out to the local range and Agent Schumckatelli just happens to be taking in a little shooting time himself and is looking for a promotion at work. (NOTE:ASSUMPTION IS OUR BOY ISN'T TOO BRIGHT)

Ok so it's May 2004 and our boy gets arrested and charged with illegal possession of blah blah blah and blatent disregard for blah blah etc. and most of all criminal stupidity.

Now fast forward a couple of months. All of the laws that made everything above illegal magically go away like some ancient magical spell of legend or something. Now based on our Judicial system our boy probably doesn't even have a trial date yet.

So what happens to our boy? Can he be found guilty for breaking a law that suddenly is no longer a law. Say this happens on Sept 3, 2004 and come midnight all the evil magazines magically turn back into pumpki......I mean legal items?

So how does the law system view laws like this. Yes this is an extreme example but let's just say some poor schmuck who doesn't know any better actually gets caught with a collapseable stock post ban AR and get's arrested. One day hes illegal the next he is not. Can he actually be held after the law sunsets?

NOTE ALL OF THIS ASSUMES THE DEATH OF THE AWB AND THAT SAID PERSON WOULD ACTUALLY GET CAUGHT AND CHARGED WITHOUT COMMITTING ANY REAL CRIMES

Just a thought on the convoluted laws.
 
From a procedural standpoint he's screwed if the prosecutor wants him badly enough. You are bound over for trial based upon violation of the laws in force at the time of your offense, not what has happened to said laws in the interim.

Conversely, say you have LEO marked mags next March, following the death of the AWB but President sKerry has prevailed and gets a new one passed that is identical to the old one. They'd better find a new marking for new LEO mags because you are protected by ex post facto doctrine on the possession of the mags marked under the old law.
 
They'd better find a new marking for new LEO mags because you are protected by ex post facto doctrine on the possession of the mags marked under the old law.
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Unless they make the law retroactive to 1994, which several of the bills that were initiated in congress this past year included.
 
Unless they make the law retroactive to 1994, which several of the bills that were initiated in congress this past year included.
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There's no way anything like this could pass. No grandfathering would make literally thousands of buyers into criminals for buying standard-capacity magazines after Sept. 13 but before the new ban. Likewise, the enthusiatic shooter who puts together a pre-ban AR-15 kit with a post-ban stripped receiver on Sept. 14 will be a criminal, as well. If something like this does happen, expect widespread non-compliance.:uhoh:
 
Unless they make the law retroactive to 1994, which several of the bills that were initiated in congress this past year included.
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That'd be blatantantly unconstitutional, even in the 9th Circuit.:D
 
quote:Unless they make the law retroactive to 1994, which several of the bills that were initiated in congress this past year included.

That'd be blatantantly unconstitutional, even in the 9th Circuit.
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I'm not sure they could pass a retroactive law, but they could make the possession of the LE only magizines illegal and give you a limited amount of time to turn in any you possess.
 
To anti-gunner's, constitutional rights mean nothing. Keep in mind that when they passed a law prohibiting those who had been convicted of domestic abuse - even misdemeanor domestic abuse - from purchasing guns they made it retroactive, and the Supreme Court didn't overturn lower court decisions that upheld the law.

Kerry and his supporters see California's law (which included registration followed by confiscation) as the ideal example - but only if it's made stronger.
 
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