Wyoming v. ATF
The NRA is backing Wyoming in its suite against the ATF:
Two national gun rights groups are supporting Wyoming’s lawsuit over a federal agency’s rejection of a state law that allows people with misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence to petition in state court to regain their right to carry guns.
The National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners Foundation have both filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Wyoming’s challenge against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Wyoming filed suit in May against the ATF claiming it exceeded its authority by rejecting the state law, which was passed in 2004.
Federal law prohibits people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns.*
Although Wyoming’s law allows people to petition to expunge such convictions for purposes of restoring their gun rights, it would still allow the original conviction to count against a person as a previous conviction if he ever got in trouble with the law again. ATF says that means the state law doesn’t allow full expunging of a person’s record, and that person would still have a conviction with regard to the federal prohibition.
Here’s hoping states’ rights prevail.
September 11th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Uh, the state made the conviction in the first place, it should follow that the state gets to do anything it damn well pleases as to the status of that conviction, feds be damned.
Where’s the common sense anymore?