AMGOA Staff
Pennsylvania


Posts: 1,431

A nonviolent conviction from the mid-1990s shouldn't interfere with a Delaware man's right to arm himself, the Third Circuit ruled en banc, doubling down on a previous finding that was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We are pleased that the en banc Third Circuit has once again held that it is unconstitutional to disarm Bryan Range on the basis of a decades-old, nonviolent offense," Peter Patterson, Range's attorney, told Courthouse News Tuesday following the opinion’s late Monday evening release.

In its 13-2 ruling, the appellate court reversed a federal court decision that barred a Range from gun ownership after he fraudulently obtained $2,458 in food stamps approximately three decades ago. The circuit court was in favor of reinstating Second Amendment rights to Range, who pleaded guilty to welfare fraud in 1995, was sentenced to probation and was unknowingly stripped of those rights by federal law because the crime was punishable by over a year in prison.

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/122624_2a_rights/nonviolent-felon-protected-by-2nd-amendment-3rd-circuit-rules/