Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Here is the problem...you cannot pick and choose which felonies you want to enforce. I have seen comments on this forum that lambasted some poor guy that mentioned he wanted to have his firearms rights restored. Some of the comments were of the nature that you wouldn't have sold the guy a roll of toilet paper because you didn't think he could be trusted with it. Now comes a guy that committed multiple violent felonies (yes, gun possession at that time was a violent felony) and simply because you sympathize with they LTs position you want him to get a pass.

Gun rights are not established for a chosen elite. The constitution says gun rights are established to allow us to protect ourselves from the chosen elite.

Personally I feel that what the LT did was perfectly excusable but I also believe that people that have a disabling crime in their past should also be given a second look. Because he was a military vet does not endow with a special karma. I happen to know a military vet, lifer retired LTC with a DSM buried with honors in Arlington that had he treated his family in todays world the way he treated them in the 50's and 60's he would have spent many years in prison for violence against his spouse and children. I bet you know who I am talking about.

Be careful how you pick and chose your winners lest you be on the wrong side of the picker one day yourself.

lizjimbo wrote:Here is the problem...you cannot pick and choose which felonies you want to enforce. I have seen comments on this forum that lambasted some poor guy that mentioned he wanted to have his firearms rights restored. Some of the comments were of the nature that you wouldn't have sold the guy a roll of toilet paper because you didn't think he could be trusted with it. Now comes a guy that committed multiple violent felonies (yes, gun possession at that time was a violent felony) and simply because you sympathize with they LTs position you want him to get a pass.

Gun rights are not established for a chosen elite. The constitution says gun rights are established to allow us to protect ourselves from the chosen elite.

Personally I feel that what the LT did was perfectly excusable but I also believe that people that have a disabling crime in their past should also be given a second look. Because he was a military vet does not endow with a special karma. I happen to know a military vet, lifer retired LTC with a DSM buried with honors in Arlington that had he treated his family in todays world the way he treated them in the 50's and 60's he would have spent many years in prison for violence against his spouse and children. I bet you know who I am talking about.

Be careful how you pick and chose your winners lest you be on the wrong side of the picker one day yourself.

I am not sure where you are coming from on this statement. We do at times have passionate discussions about things on here. I don't know of anyone on here that would agree with that possession of a firearm constitutes a violent felony. It might be a felony, and we will probably argue that point to death, but using the word "violent" would imply that it was used in the commission of another crime. I would even argue that in no way as he in violation of DC's law. He was travelling from NJ to Walter Reed (Federal property, not jurisdiction of DCPD), He then travelled from Walter Reed to SC. Now if he was stopped by the DOD police on the grounds of Walter Reed, he could have been charged for violating the post's policy, and that would have been turned over to his unit for disposition probably.

A few months ago we did have a discussion about the restoration of gun ownership rights and if I recall we fell into three groups, those that felt immediately restoration was the right thing, those that felt an individual had to work to earn them back and those that felt depending on the crime,they should never be restored. I personally believe that you have to look at the totality of the circumstances, when dealing with a convicted felon. For example, I wouldn't hire a convicted child molester to babysit kids or someone convicted of embezzlement to run a cash register. I wouldn't have problem with them working on construction site unless that building was right next to the elementary school.