Legal Commentary

Juveniles on Probations, and Their Parents? Guns (and Other Weapons)

By Eugene Volokh

Apropos the discussion below, what do you folks think of this Oregon county juvenile court probation policy (thanks to commenter Philistine for the pointer) (emphasis added)?

4. You are to only live with your parent(s) or court-approved guardian(s) ....

11. You are not to posses any weapon of any description including but not limited to firearms, knives, nunchucks, or martial arts weaponry. You are not to possess any ammunition or weapon replicas. You are not to possess any dangerous animal. You are not to involve yourself in activities in which weapons are used, including but not limited to hunting or target shooting without prior permission from a probation officer. You are not to remain in any vehicle, dwelling or building wherein anyone possesses a weapon, ammunition, weapon replica or dangerous animal.

It?s true that, as some commenters on the earlier thread noted, the parents remain free to keep possessing guns at home: They can just make clear to the court that their children can?t comply with the conditions of probation. Then, if the court sticks with its policy it will then sentence the child to jail or juvenile detention instead (for the entire length of the term, since staying at the parents? home would violate the probation conditions for post-incarceration probation as much as for instead-of-incarceration probation).

Of course, very few parents would want that, even if self-defense is very important to them. So the question is: To what extent is it proper for the court to use its undoubted power over the juvenile offender ? which includes the power to sentence the offender to juvenile detention instead of probation ? in a way that strongly pressures the offender?s parents (and any other adult relatives who live with the offender and his parents) to give up their right to bear arms for several years? There?s also the separate question of the breadth of the policy (especially given that weapon seems to include knives, and might also include baseball bats and other such things), but that strikes me as a somewhat less conceptually interesting issue.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on May 26, 2010 (boomark / email).