Horrendous SCOTUS Ruling Deprives Average Citizens of Gun Rights for Minor Offenses

The Supreme Court has just issued what could become a landmark ruling against gun rights advocates.

The case, Stephen Voisine vs. The United States, “involves two plaintiffs who were convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes and were subsequently denied their rights to own a firearm, although no one was seriously injured during the commission of the crimes. The case seeks to answer the question, what kind of domestic abuse does one have to be convicted of in order to have constitutionally protected gun rights taken away?” wrote Western Journalism in February.

According to the SCOTUS ruling, even texting while driving can fall under the crimes resulting in a person’s forfeiture of their rights to own a firearm.

The SCOTUS concluded individuals convicted of “reckless domestic assault,” a misdemeanor, can now have their gun rights revoked and receive a lifetime ban on ownership of firearms.

States like Connecticut have already passed laws banning individuals from gun ownership who have been convicted of one crime of domestic assault.

The ruling passed with a 6-2 vote, with Justice Elena Kagan writing the opinion of the court. “In sum, Congress’s definition of a ‘misdemeanor crime of violence’ contains no exclusion for convictions based on reckless behavior. A person who assaults another recklessly ‘use[s]’ force, no less than one who carries out that same action knowingly or intentionally.”

Justice Thomas offered the dissenting opinion. He argued that a person who texts while driving could “lose his right to bear arms forever if his wife or child suffers the slightest injury from the crash.”

Thomas wrote, “And while it may be true that such incidents are rarely prosecuted, this decision leaves the right to keep and bear arms up to the discretion of federal, state and local prosecutors.”

Those who may have recently been convicted of the crime, or received a conviction years, or even decades ago, may now be in jeopardy of losing their right to own a weapon, and conceivably, having their weapons confiscated. (For more from the author of “Gun Rights SCOTUS Ruling Has Far Reaching Implications” please click HERE)

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