should felons be able to purchase weapons??

[Bunnykid68]

If you want to be able to own firearms then sue the USA for your gun rights back

If he were Bill Gates he could afford too.

 

[Eternal Vigilance]

What I would propose as a legitimate compromise would be a window period of "social reintegration." The majority of statistics I see point to the fact that most recidivists reoffend within 3 years of release. Not just release fromprison, but full discharge from state wardship, that being work-release, probation or parole. If a person could double that (I have used 7 years as an arbitrarily arrived at number just to have a number), and show factual proof of rehabilitation such as productive societal integration, would that not be an acceptable modification to the current law?

NYFelon, you are really on to something here. I recently completed a very long paper for a college class on the subject of problems with the justice system and among them were prisoner reintegration and the inefficacy of imprisonment. A lot of people do not realize the great difficulties that follow a prison sentence for a guy who wants to live a law abiding life. Employment becomes difficult, emotional and social retraining must occur (reintegration is not a strong enough word for this), and etc. The negative impact of prisons on prisoners is tremendous.

With that being said, it is clear that not all felons continue a life of crime after serving their time. While many do recidivate (recommit crimes) after serving time, not all do. (See below for some links regarding recidivism) I agree with you a reasonable waiting period should be imposed and that if the person keeps their record clean they should be able to petition a state court (and federal courts should recognize this procedure) for full restoration of their rights (including firearm rights). The courts should either have to restore the person's rights or there should be a legislatively created inference in favor of restoring the person's rights that can only be overcome by a new crime in the waiting period or by testimony of an impending or ongoing crime during the waiting period. I think your idea of requiring proof of meaningful reintegration is very interesting and definitely has merit.

As to how long the waiting period should be, I would suggest 3 years for non-violent offenders and 5 years for violent offenders. A person has the right to defend themselves regardless of past crimes, and if the person has proven they are no threat to society there is no reason to withhold from them their right to use effective equipment (firearms) to defend themselves.

http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rpr94.pdf
(dated, but still in use due to lack of a newer, national study [a new one is due to come out in 2011 or 2012])

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Pew_State_of_Recidivism.pdf

 

[coltsfan34]

Why not

As has been stated here and just about everywhere else i've read, presently, the current gun laws really only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to obtain guns, so I say why not? If felons were allowed to purchase guns and have LTCH, then IF they were to buy a gun through "proper" channels, big brother would then know they had it and if said person were to have say a 9mm on record, and a 9mm was used in the commission of a crime, then perhaps the local police would have a starting point for a suspect.That being said, I believe that anyone not currently incarcerated should be allowed to own a gun if they so choose and big brother has no right to know what guns I have. JM2C

 

[finity]

...big brother would then know they had it and if said person were to have say a 9mm on record...

Not sure if you either think we have some sort of gun registration requirement in IN or you want one.

Either way, no way.