That wasn't my point, larryh1108.
First of all, the concept of "justice" in the first place does not revolve around asking convicted prisoners what to pick between two punishments.
Second of all, you're own closing paragraph, where you said
"Any conviction of a violent nature or includes a weapons charge should stand as it is now but there are many crimes that are non-violent and not worthy of stripping rights forever", seems to dovetail pretty much exactly with what I posted, starting with
"We can make the case either way for any given number of criminal acts. But what gripes me is the fact that so many things which qualify as a "felony" don't have anything to do with many of the "rights" that they can no longer enjoy as a felon."
So your comment about how you
"did not expect this statement from a retired USN Chief" does not seem to be very much warranted.
But to back the truck up a bit here and clarify something, since my Chiefliness seems to be in question here, I'm not some kind of "touchy-feely", "everybody's-woes-are-caused-by-society", or "the-punishment-doesn't-deter-the-crime" kinda guy. Not at all.
But I will happily point out and discuss how many ways our criminal justice system flat out sucks.
In general, if a criminal is not ever to be trusted, then why are they ever let out in the first place? Yes, we're responsible for our actions, and we should be held accountable as such. But when we levy extensive punishments for long terms (such as for life), then what we end up doing is exacerbating the problem. A criminal who can't get a job, for example, is GOING to figure out how to make his living somehow.
Now, I can see how someone like you might take that as meaning I'm some kinda namby-pamby, left-wing, fruitcake who sees rainbows and unicorns everywhere I look. Far from it. But even if I were, that wouldn't change the fact that we allow things like this to happen in far too many instances where it shouldn't.
What is a "felony"? In the U.S., it's essentially any crime punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year.
NOTE: That's any crime PUNISHABLE by imprisonment for more than one year. Not any conviction with a SENTENCE of more than one year. So, if you go to court for a crime which carries a maximum of 18 months imprisonment and you're sentenced to 6 months...you're a felon.
While I can readily agree that felons convicted of violent crimes (murder, manslaughter, assault, etc.) should lose their right to keep and bear arms, how many non-violent crimes are there with imprisonment terms greater than one year? Why should a person with a felony prostitution conviction be prohibited their RKBA, for example? Or felony gambling? Or felony tax fraud?
And why is it that states, for the most part anyway, have processes by which some convicted felons can petition to have some, or all, of their rights restored but the federal government does not?
That said, do I appreciate what Governor McAuliffe's done? Not at all, because his state already has a process in place to affect restoration of certain rights and he deliberately circumvented the entire process, which is supposed to involve specific review of each case.
His was a blanket restoration that restored the right to vote to all convicted felons, regardless of the crime(s) for which they were convicted, provided they served their sentence, to include completion of any parole or probation condition.
Regardless of how he paints that picture, it comes out as a purely political move on a grand scale, meant to influence voting strategy within the state of Virginia. Given that there are about 5.1 million registered voters in VA and that about 70% of these actually turned out to vote in the presidential election years, he's single handedly shifted the voting demographics by up to 6%. (14%, for non-presidential election years, which have about a 29% turnout).
And he is intending to further influence this on a monthly basis, with more such orders. So those numbers will continue to grow.
Here are a few links on the subject of various rights restoration:
https://solutions.virginia.gov/RestorationOfRights
http://johnpierceesq.com/gun-rights-restoration/