Yet somebody else has dropped in the comments to bitch about Fix NICS bills and how it really is Gun Control in disguise and the fucking traitors of the NRA and you if you support it and blah-blah.
As far as I have been able to track, the main pusher of this exotic collection of twisted thoughts was Gun Owners of America in press release back in December last year.
There is a reason for me marking the date. You will see this again later.
Let’s start with the basics. If you get a ticket for speeding or unsafe lane change or license plate light gone or whatever little indiscretion you may have committed, your guns will be safe and you can actually go buy some more, no problem.
Now, if you are the forgetful type or IDGAF type and forget of ignore pay the tickets and go to court, the judge will issue a warrant for your arrest. And that kiddies is what is called being “fugitive from justice.” Silly and stupid just because you were caught doing 40 mph in a 25 mph zone? Agree, but still is the law till you change it. Understand that the person who got the tickets and had to take care of them was you and you did not creating a turd sandwich which you are now forced to chew without ketchup.
Now, I refer to our old friend ATF form 4473 and the question:
The answer is a rotund yes. Correction, it was a yes till November of 2017. In fact, on November 27 of 2017, the Washington Post publishes an article in which explaind that the DOJ has dumped a bunch of people from their computers because the definition of “fugitive from justice” had been changed.
Tens of thousands of people wanted by law enforcement officials have been removed this year from the FBI criminal background check database that prohibits fugitives from justice from buying guns.
The FBI purged the names from the database after the Justice Department changed its legal interpretation of “fugitive from justice” to say it pertains only to wanted people who have crossed state lines.Tens of thousands with outstanding warrants purged from background check database for gun purchases
Did you compare the date of GOA’s press release with the date of the article? GOA was factually wrong by the time of publishing. But I have seen no correction from them (I might be wrong) and people keep popping everywhere screaming about the frigging “Traffic Ticket Gun Ban.”
Oh wait, I almost forgot. If this thing was not stupid and convoluted enough, I give you the kicker from the same WaPo article:
For more than 15 years, the FBI and ATF disagreed about who exactly was a fugitive from justice.
The FBI, which runs the criminal background check database, had a broad definition and said that anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant was prohibited from buying a gun. But ATF argued that, under the law, a person is considered a fugitive from justice only if they have an outstanding warrant and have also traveled to another state.
In a 2016 report, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz urged the Justice Department to address the disagreement “as soon as possible.” Late last year, before President Trump took office, the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel sided with ATF and narrowed the definition of fugitives, according to law enforcement officials. The office said that gun purchases could be denied only to fugitives who cross state lines.
Probably is the first time since sometime before 1934 that the ATF did something that benefited gun owner, although probably by accident.
Now, can we please quit with the Traffic Ticket Gun Ban?
I remember that. TDS sufferers were going on and on about how Trump let hundreds of thousands of criminals buy guns but really didn’t like the fact that the disagreement had gone on for years over multiple administrations and that it was actually during the Obama administration that the decision was made.
It is a gun ban if you do something unwise like get a red light camera ticket in CA, and blow it off because, “I’ll never go there again.” I considered it (Georgia), but the places I visit are repeat visits. People have gotten away with it in the past because many governmental units never gave a rosy red rat’s @$$ about NICS.
Lethal Bureaucratic Incompetence. Ask the dead in the Texas and South Carolina Church shootings.
You’d be crossing state lines to avoid prosecution… Yup
I’m not clear….under this previous definition of “fugitive”, is it simply that you are banned from BUYING a gun, or are you actually not legally allowed to own guns if there is a warrant out for your arrest? That seems unlikely. It just made me stop and wonder, because of something that happened to me years ago. Apparently a criminal (I think) complaint had been filed against me over a relatively minor charge; someone claimed I provided a minor with alcohol. I didn’t know anything about it, because I had moved elsewhere and never updated my mailing address, so I missed the court date, and a warrant was put out for my arrest. The first I heard about it was after driving down to the store one morning, and having a local police car pull in behind me as I arrived home. As they informed me I was under arrest, they asked me if I had any knife or firearms or other weapons on me; I said “yes, in my inner coat pocket” (my state is one of two in the country where you don’t need a permit to carry a gun – and strangely enough we are a very peaceful, non-violent state with very few murders. Who’d have thought it?), and the officers (seeming a bit surprised, like they hadn’t really expected me to say “yes” removed it. They were as polite as officers can be in a situation like that, and so was I. But then later as we were driving down to the station (the officers insisted on bringing the gun with them, promising they would give it back when I was released…and they did), one of them turned to me and said “I appreciate you being honest about that gun and telling us about it; if you hadn’t said anything, it would have gone hard with you”. I didn’t know what to say so I just said “well, I didn’t have any reason NOT to tell you, did I?”
Ever since then I’ve wondered what the hell that was supposed to mean. Was the officer not aware that a person can legally carry without a permit in this state? Was he totally aware of it, but was so used to the people he arrested NOT being aware of it that he thought he could intimidate/ingratiate me by making it seem like he was going to “let me off the hook” for being cooperative? Or they knew the gun was totally legal, but if I had tried to hide it from them, they’d have found some other excuse to screw me over just out of spite? Is there some small legal technicality I am not aware of, and I WAS actually breaking the law? A town ordinance? It’s bothered me ever since then, and I wish I could go back and find the officer and ask him what the hell he meant by that, anyway. I didn’t have time to even think over the implications at the time, and I didn’t want to rock the boat anyway. It wasn’t until later that I went back and started to go over what he said in my head, and it still annoys me.
But reading this made me wonder if maybe as a “fugitive from justice” I was legally actually breaking the law, and they COULD have charged me with carrying a gun illegally, even though I had no idea I was wanted for arrest. It seems unlikely, but who knows?