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: Lawbeat

WSJ spots gun angle in pardons-story folo

By Mark Obbie

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Amir Efrati uses a reporter's nose, and shoe leather, to document a pattern among many of last week's recipients of presidential pardons. He writes in Friday's Wall Street Journal:

On the surface, the list of the 14 people pardoned by the president this week shows few common denominators in terms of time served, geographic location or even type of crime, except that the felonies were non-violent. But a closer look at some of the newly pardoned shows many of them are church-going, blue-collar workers from rural areas (and ardent Bush supporters) who had little trouble finding jobs after their convictions. There is another common thread: the important role firearms once played in their lives.

I appreciate the story's factual, nonjudgmental tone. It would be easy to let advocates on either side of the gun-rights debate hijack this story for a policy fight. Instead, Efrati simply tells the story of people who sought and won a pardon, documenting (though their letters and quotes) how they sought to restore their right to possess guns. He explains how state laws affect some post-conviction rights, but that gun possession depends on a federal pardon. I'm left a bit confused on why federal law preempts state law in this area. And the story avoids altogether another useful side trip into the looming court battles over restrictions on convicted felons' gun possession. But those are minor quibbles about an otherwise excellent backstory. (Via Sentencing Law and Policy)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on November 30, 2008 (boomark / email).