Everyone on this board has at one point committed a felony, either knowlingly or unknowingly...especially because we're gun owners trying to navigate the labyrinth of 20,000+ federal and local gun laws.
There are very few felonies that you can commit "unkowingly", since mens rea, a culpable mental state, is an essential element of virtually all felonies.
And I guess Im the exception, cant think of one felony I have ever committed.
When you say that felons should not have constitutional rights, you are setting yourself up to losing yours, because all that's left for the gun grabbers to do is to make as many things a felony as possible. Even some misdemeanors now cost you the right to self-defense for life, retroactively. (Lautenberg, anyone?)
Slippery slope arguments are the least effective means of arguing against something...
"Well if we ban felons, when can ban anyone" is as silly as "If we dont ban felons then blood will run in the streets"
Thats not the point. The point is EVERY felony entails the individual doing harm to either someone else or society with, in virtually all cases, a culpable mental state. These individuals have demonstrated that they are unfit, in whole or in part, to be members of society. Now since we just cant hang felons anymore due to our evolving system of decency, we make sure that these felons can no longer LEGALLY posess the means for OFFENSIVE actions against society.
Everybody wants to say..o but I know someone who...blah blah blah. Everybody has their favorite nice wronged by the government felon. Thats OK....if you want to say that CERTAIN felons should have rights restored automatically, thats fine too...then you are of course arguing that is OK to have SOME felons to be banned...So you for you guys its the same as what Im arguing...you just want to stop banning your favorite felons, and the hell with the rest.
Now of course, keep in mind that for the rest of you, under your plan of a free amn can have arms, past history regrdless, if Charlie Manson walked out of the can he could walk over to the local gunshop and buy an AR....or the blind Shiek does his time and gets his gun...or the local Chester the Molester buys a 38 and heads over to your kids school...if thats the world ya want more power to ya, but its not the world me or the vast majority of reasonable americans want or guess what, its not the world that the 2nd amnedment, under its most expansive reading, would ever cover.
So dream on.
Keep in mind I have NEVER agrued agaisnt a system that would permit felons to have firearms rights restored. As far as I am concerned, the non funded ATF program is a farce of the first order. Wonder why some of you guys are wasting energy arguing the dsame thing over and over instead of working to get the program funded.
or why we shouldn't be able to deny any of the other rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights to convicted felons.
I think constituionally the state could (and does...voting?) deny certain enumerted rights to convicted felons, as long as the law met a strict scrutniy standard. Already exists, look at sex offender registry laws....
Your argument is emotional, not logical, and it is inconsistent because you do not have logic on your side.
I think the posts speak for themselves...Im not the one gettin all teary eyed about all the "poor" guys who got busted 30 years ago and now are good citizens sob sob sob
PS...I spent three years of intensive work helping a buddy and his lawyer get him out from under the Lautenburg law. His life was almost ruined by that law. We got it fixed. If felons and their sypathisers spent as much tiome and energy doing that as they spend whining on the net, all the "wrongful" deprivations would go away.
Like I said before the same silly argument over and over again.
WildnowexcusemegottogosellgunstothelawabidingAlaska