Convicted Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham asked to get his gun rights back

[Meplat]

Is he allowed to own a bow? If so, start bow hunting.

[Meplat]

I used to think he was a disgrace to accept bribes. Now I know differently. They're *all* dirty beyond compare at that level.

He just didn't play ball with the anti american agenda, so they burned him.

These congresspeople have been trading stocks with inside information, legally, forever.

[BrokerB]

whats that phrase..

absolute power corrupts?

I'm sure the millions you stole can buy you a gun ...maybe put it in your mouth and save us Tax payers the money your Tri-care is going to suck dry each year as your health care needs sky rocket.

Its really only decent thing to do now, but we can see you left decency back with your wingman.

So much corruption and so little time

[rugershooter]

He committed crimes and paid the price for them. Once his punishment is over he should be a free man, which means full restoration of ALL rights.

[Skidmark]

He committed crimes and paid the price for them. Once his punishment is over he should be a free man, which means full restoration of ALL rights.

That's not how it works with Felony convictions in these United States. Part of his "punishment" is removal of right to firearms.

[j.hors]

$1700 a month and is broke... I made just a little more then that on active duty. And here when minimum wage is $8 an hour, full time work (40 hours a week) is only $1367 before tax. I have a hard time feeling sorry for his financial situation.

[Cannon-Arms]

I do want to say, I do believe in redemption. First timer, non violent young mistake type, yes, give the a second chance.

I am particularly torn with what he did. He, as all politicians are, are in a place of public trust, our lives in there hands in a sense. Not only that, he's older and assumed wiser. I really feel all polititions should be held to a high, more transparent standard. Drug test, open communications of public dealings things of that sort. People like him, I do not feel sorry for. It's the idiot young first timers who are now caught up in a life of misery due to the branding of "FELON", no recourse for forgiveness.

[eltee]

My viewpoint is that he may have a better chance at restoration of (gun) rights than most. He is well known, he knows the judicial system and, like most politicians, knows people in high places who owe him or he has something on them. He knows a lot of D.C. folks by first name. Sure, publicly any elected official will shun him but he has more access than most felons. If he can facilitate a process that restores his gun rights, it opens a door for the rest of the world. His status as a veteran, politician, having an otherwise clean record and having committed of a non-violent, white collar crime all help.

I hate what he did out of greed, but maybe he can do some good for the gun community.

[kcbrown]

My viewpoint is that he may have a better chance at restoration of (gun) rights than most. He is well known, he knows the judicial system and, like most politicians, knows people in high places who owe him or he has something on them. He knows a lot of D.C. folks by first name. Sure, publicly any elected official will shun him but he has more access than most felons. If he can facilitate a process that restores his gun rights, it opens a door for the rest of the world. His status as a veteran, politician, having an otherwise clean record and having committed of a non-violent, white collar crime all help.

It is for that very reason that his success in restoring his gun rights does not open a door for the rest of the world. He will be succeeding because of who he is and who he knows, and nothing else. No mere mortal will be able to take advantage of whatever path he forges.

I hate what he did out of greed, but maybe he can do some good for the gun community.

I doubt it.

[FalconLair]

how could you do it for him without opening up a can of worms for every other "non" violent felon to demand the same consideration...im not saying its right or wrong, just seems like the kind of thing that could reek of favortism...its just like the DV thing, or the TRO issue...some more guidelines would have to be put in place to ensure a fair forum for everyone, dont u agree?

my brother cannot possess a gun for a very stupid reason, when he was in college he kept getting parking tickets for illegal parking because he could never find a parking space at the school, so one day he decided to be dumb and put "fake plates" on his car while he was in class...well, it backfired badly for him because his car got towed away and then when he went to reclaim it they discovered the plates and he got arrested for a "felony" using fake plates lol...just some dumb crap, but he is still got it on his record

his (Duke's) crime had nothing to do with gun ownership, nothing violent about his crime whatsoever, there are just 100's of thousands of people with felony convictions for some of the most minor non violent of things...seems like you would have to rewrite the entire law concerning felons and guns, but i do agree that some felonies shouldn't warrant loss of gun ownership

[kcbrown]

how could you do it for him without opening up a can of worms for every other "non" violent felon to demand the same consideration...im not saying its right or wrong, just seems like the kind of thing that could reek of favortism...its just like the DV thing, or the TRO issue...some more guidelines would have to be put in place to ensure a fair forum for everyone, dont u agree?

It would reek of favoritism, but that doesn't automatically mean that the end result won't be exactly that. Quite the opposite, for the most part. The problem is that the government is now so fundamentally corrupt that there is scant recourse to reduce or eliminate such favoritism. That means that not only is favoritism possible, it is to be expected, and worse, it means there really isn't much that can be done about it.

You could attempt to bring an equal protection suit, but those are apparently very hard to win.

You cannot fix a corrupt government by going through the motions which that same corrupt government has deemed allowable, for it is precisely because those motions are ineffective that it has deemed them allowable at all!

my brother cannot possess a gun for a very stupid reason, when he was in college he kept getting parking tickets for illegal parking because he could never find a parking space at the school, so one day he decided to be dumb and put "fake plates" on his car while he was in class...well, it backfired badly for him because his car got towed away and then when he went to reclaim it they discovered the plates and he got arrested for a "felony" using fake plates lol...just some dumb crap, but he is still got it on his record

his (Duke's) crime had nothing to do with gun ownership, nothing violent about his crime whatsoever, there are just 100's of thousands of people with felony convictions for some of the most minor non violent of things...seems like you would have to rewrite the entire law concerning felons and guns, but i do agree that some felonies shouldn't warrant loss of gun ownership

The problem with the whole "felons and guns" thing is this: those felons who are determined to commit further crimes with firearms will do so and the law be damned. They will not be deterred by any law. Those who are not so inclined are precisely the ones you don't even need to worry about. So the entire "no guns for felons" approach is fatally broken from the start, such that it has exactly the opposite effect from that which would actually prove beneficial to the citizenry, namely that it strips arms from those who would be responsible with them.

There is no logical way out of the above argument. If you're going to insist that the state has no business restricting RKBA from law abiding citizens because criminals ignore the law anyway, then you must acknowledge the validity of precisely the same argument as applied to those who have a criminal record and who are released into society. There appears to be a notably higher probability that a person with a past criminal history will commit further crimes when compared to those without a record, but that is irrelevant to the above argument, because the above argument is only about the effect of restrictions on those who are no longer or have never been inclined to commit crimes, and the lack of effect on those who are inclined to commit crimes.


The bottom line is that the "no guns for felons" approach is a feel good approach that has no real beneficial effect. You'll get lots of argument against that from LEOs and the like, because their logic is that they're able to get repeat criminals off the street more easily because the "no guns for felons" law gives those LEOs more reasons to arrest and DAs more reason to convict than they would otherwise have. In essence, the purpose as they see it is to "test" the individual's propensity to follow the law by creating additional laws that they must follow. But by that logic, we'd be better off making driving illegal for convicted felons, because then it would be trivial for a LEO to determine whether or not the felon in question is following the law.

[FalconLair]

well maybe the correct way to address the issue of gun carry would be to have something in "addition" to a misdemeanor or a felony type charge...almost like the "violent felony" type charge that would solely determine whether or not you lose your right to gun ownership...certain instances of felony convictions or misdemeanors would not affect our right to still carry a firearm...i still dont quite get the DV or TRO filings which could cause your to have to lose your firearms...very arbitrary

the more i think about it the more even i can see the flaws in the way our legislators have missed the boat badly with some of these laws...this is not just a gun issue either, i believe felons also lose their right to vote, problems getting passports to travel, cant serve on a jury lol...so its more than just a gun issue when you really think about all the things that being a felon can prevent you from doing