2dogsbarking
Member
I think I’m writing this as a warning. If everyone else knows this I apologize for taking up so much space.
Here’s the background story. In the process of a 2004 divorce from hell, I was convicted of a nonviolent misdemeanor that carried a maximum sentence of one year in jail, but it was still legal for me to own firearms, the “Conviction carrying a maximum of less than one year sentence” being the limit for gun ownership.
About 3 month ago, I bought a pistol from a private seller, and did the transfer at a MSP barracks
Last week I got a call from a MSP C.I,. saying my permit had been denied and he was sending an officer to my house to pick up the gun. There were also questions asking about if I owned any other guns. That question included the implied threat that I had committed perjury on my gun application. Totally confused and sure this was a mistake I asked for 24 hours to find out what the error was and correct it. A very quick no was the answer, so I turned in my pistol to a MSP officer who showed up at my house an hour later.
Here’s what I found. In 2010 Maryland passed laws which made a more misdemeanors justification for MSP to deny applications for gun ownership, or to own firearms at all. The kicker is that the law is being applied retroactively to all sgun owners who were convicted years before the new law was passed. The retroactive law was challenged in court (MSP v McLearn, 197 MD. APP 403) and upheld.. The Maryland supreme court refused to hear the appeal and as I understand it, the appeal was never moved up to a federal appeals court.
This effects thousands of Maryland gun owners (including police officers) who have made small mistakes in their past. I’ve never heard a thing about it in the news. Maybe it’s because I’m not a member of the NRA - for political reasons. Not joining is even more justified since they have supplied the NSA hackers, and any other government agency, with the names and addresses of every member/ gun owner in the country.
My only options are to ask the judge who sentenced me to retroactively change my sentence to PBJ, and I’m not sure about that one, or get a pardon from the governor (for a misdemeanor?). The odds on either of those things happening are just about zero.
Unless anyone knows a better way to deal with this, I’m continuing to shop around for reproduction cap & ball revolvers, and black powder rifles, the only type firearms I’m still able to own.
Here’s the background story. In the process of a 2004 divorce from hell, I was convicted of a nonviolent misdemeanor that carried a maximum sentence of one year in jail, but it was still legal for me to own firearms, the “Conviction carrying a maximum of less than one year sentence” being the limit for gun ownership.
About 3 month ago, I bought a pistol from a private seller, and did the transfer at a MSP barracks
Last week I got a call from a MSP C.I,. saying my permit had been denied and he was sending an officer to my house to pick up the gun. There were also questions asking about if I owned any other guns. That question included the implied threat that I had committed perjury on my gun application. Totally confused and sure this was a mistake I asked for 24 hours to find out what the error was and correct it. A very quick no was the answer, so I turned in my pistol to a MSP officer who showed up at my house an hour later.
Here’s what I found. In 2010 Maryland passed laws which made a more misdemeanors justification for MSP to deny applications for gun ownership, or to own firearms at all. The kicker is that the law is being applied retroactively to all sgun owners who were convicted years before the new law was passed. The retroactive law was challenged in court (MSP v McLearn, 197 MD. APP 403) and upheld.. The Maryland supreme court refused to hear the appeal and as I understand it, the appeal was never moved up to a federal appeals court.
This effects thousands of Maryland gun owners (including police officers) who have made small mistakes in their past. I’ve never heard a thing about it in the news. Maybe it’s because I’m not a member of the NRA - for political reasons. Not joining is even more justified since they have supplied the NSA hackers, and any other government agency, with the names and addresses of every member/ gun owner in the country.
My only options are to ask the judge who sentenced me to retroactively change my sentence to PBJ, and I’m not sure about that one, or get a pardon from the governor (for a misdemeanor?). The odds on either of those things happening are just about zero.
Unless anyone knows a better way to deal with this, I’m continuing to shop around for reproduction cap & ball revolvers, and black powder rifles, the only type firearms I’m still able to own.