Tennessee Legislature Moves Closer To “Targeting” Rights Of Non-Violent Felons

By Ammoland

Tennessee – -(Ammoland.com)- Today, the Tennessee Senate Judiciary committee unanimously approved a bill (SB2528 by Ketron and HB2254 by Sargent) which will and is intended specifically to take rights away from nonviolent felons who have already served their time and completed their punishment. The question is why?

Prior to 2007, nonviolent felons, perhaps someone who wrote a bad check and later made restitution, could get their “full rights of citizenship” restored under state law once they had completed their sentence or terms of probation. As a result of a change in the law in 2008, which it appears the sponsors did not even fully understand, nonviolent felons cannot possess a handgun. However, because of federal law, the fact that Tennessee restricts any right to own any firearm federal law “bootstraps” and prohibits the person from owning any firearm.

In addition, the 2008 Legislative change appears to have been oblivious to a prior Tennessee Supreme Court decision which essentially held that even a court order restoring the “full rights of citizenship” to a person with a felony conviction does not restore the right to possess a firearm.

Nevertheless, TCA 39-17-1308(b) has provided that …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand