Gun Rights Advocates Want to Provide Gun Rights for Convicted Felons

Hm, Now What Could Go Wrong There?

The Dismal Political Economist is a supporter of the 2^nd Amendment and believes that Americans do have the right to possess firearms.  But he also believes that just like every other right, the government has the right to regulate for the common good and that no right is absolute.  The right to Freedom of Speech does not give on the right to cry “fire” in a crowded theater, or to libel another person.



Geoff Crimmins/Moscow-Pullman

Daily News, via Associated Press

Erik Zettergren killed a man

soon after regaining gun rights.



The folks who strongly advocate for gun rights have adopted the almost incomprehensible position that convicted felons, even violent criminals, should have the same rights to possess firearms as any other citizen.  As a result of their political power, more and more felons are able to acquire guns.

every year, thousands of felons across the country have those rights reinstated, often with little or no review. In several states, they include people convicted of violent crimes, including first-degree murder and manslaughter, an examination by The New York Times has found.

How can this be and who is behind it?  Well the Usual Suspect.

While previously a small number of felons were able to reclaim their gun rights, the process became commonplace in many states in the late 1980s, after Congress started allowing state laws to dictate these reinstatements — part of an overhaul of federal gun laws orchestrated by the National Rifle Association. The restoration movement has gathered force in recent years, as gun rights advocates have sought to capitalize on the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms.

And the justification for such unjustifiable action

Ken Hanson, legislative chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Coalition, argued that felons should be able to reclaim their gun rights just as they can other civil rights.

“If it’s a constitutional right, you treat it with equal dignity with other rights,” he said.

Wow, think about this.  There are so many problems in America that desperately need attention, like poverty, hunger, the quality of education, health care and so forth and here we have some Americans who have devoted their lives to making certain convicted felons can have guns. 

And what could go wrong?  Plenty

Since 1995, more than 3,300 felons and people convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors have regained their gun rights in the state — 430 in 2010 alone — according to the analysis of data provided by the state police and the court system. Of that number, more than 400 — about 13 percent — have subsequently committed new crimes, the analysis found. More than 200 committed felonies, including murder, assault in the first and second degree, child rape and drive-by shooting.

Now no one should suggest that the gun right fanatics desire these outcomes, it’s just that like many other Conservatives, they just do not care about others or about societal issues.  They regard gun rights as so precious that they are willing for other people to suffer grievous injuries and harm that could otherwise be prevented.  But the argument could be made that such people are so callous and so utterly indifferent to human life that they themselves should not be eligible to possess firearms.