Just a simple question: Why is it that convicted felons who have served their time in prison are banned for life from voting but can quickly purchase and possess guns, often with no questions asked?
While the issue of states denying voting rights to felons has been debated for decades, the gun rights issue has largely been kept under the radar.
Today’s New York Times offers a fairly disturbing report on how easy it is for violent felons to have their right to bear arms reinstated as soon as they walk out the prison gates. They cite the example of a Washington State man with mental problems and convicted twice for felonies who easily retrieved his guns, without a hearing, after completing his latest incarceration. Shortly afterward, in a jealous rage, he fatally shot a man at point-blank range.
Here’s a portion of the Times’story:
“Under federal law, people with felony convictions forfeit their right to bear arms. Yet every year, thousands of felons across the country have those rights reinstated, often with little or no review. In several states, they include people convicted of violent crimes, including first-degree murder and manslaughter, an examination by The New York Times has found.
“While previously a small number of felons were able to reclaim their gun rights, the process became commonplace in many states in the late 1980s, after Congress started allowing state laws to dictate these reinstatements — part of an overhaul of federal gun laws orchestrated by the National Rifle Association. The restoration movement has gathered force in recent years, as gun rights advocates have sought to capitalize on the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms.
“This gradual pulling back of what many Americans have unquestioningly assumed was a blanket prohibition has drawn relatively little public notice. Indeed, state law enforcement agencies have scant information, if any, on which felons are getting their gun rights back, let alone how many have gone on to commit new crimes.
“While many states continue to make it very difficult for felons to get their gun rights back — and federal felons are out of luck without a presidential pardon — many other jurisdictions are far more lenient, The Times found. In some, restoration is automatic for nonviolent felons as soon as they complete their sentences. In others, the decision is left up to judges, but the standards are generally vague, the process often perfunctory. In some states, even violent felons face a relatively low bar, with no waiting period before they can apply.”
The argument for ex-felon voting has always been that once they have completed their punishment and are back in the community — paying taxes, working, raising families — they have the same concerns as other voters, and they should have the same say in who represents them.
Of course, the same could be said for gun rights. Except that parolees convicted of violent crimes often face numerous restrictions on their freedoms as a precaution to keep society safe. I’ve never seen a convict injure anyone with an election ballot.
