The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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My friend Scotty Cronin runs Gunset Training Group and their motto is “Save Yourself”. I wholeheartedly agree with that mindset. In addition to the physical confrontation, Scotty and I both tell our students that there’s another fight where you need to be able to “save yourself” – the legal fight that potentially comes after you’ve used force against someone or you have ended up as a defendant in the criminal justice or civil court systems in some other way. Too often people think that a pistol is a magic talisman that will make everything better. Or “I have a good attorney, I’ll be fine”. I don’t know about you, but I hate having my fate resting in someone else’s hands and having to rely on what that person is telling me without understanding or knowing exactly what is going on. I’ve been there and done that. I’ve been sued a few times in my career and I’m happy to say that all of them but one were complete BS. The first one I was in the wrong – a car accident that was my fault. The others were for various alleged 4th Amendment violations that were figments of the plaintiff’s imagination and the cases were dismissed. So about 15 years ago I got curious about the court process and started really digging into case law. The more I read, the more I was amazed at how much I didn’t know. 15 years later and I am still learning.
Today I was reading some recent appeals court decisions and I came across a case that really made me stop and go “what good did that attorney do him”? The case was a domestic violence case that was pled down to an assault charge. The defendant’s attorney and the judge both dropped the ball and in the end, the defendant lost his right to own a firearm because of that plea. And he may never be able to get that back. Which made me start to think about the average gun owner and how much they may or may not know about Ohio gun laws or federal gun laws. So I decided to start writing a series of articles about gun related laws and issues surrounding those laws that I think gun owners should be aware of.
Let me start by saying this – I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. These are purely educational posts for you to use as a springboard to do your own research. Some (a good bit, really) of the information I’m gonna pass along comes straight from the approved State of Ohio lesson plans (which are used all across the State) that I teach from when I teach in the Basic Police Academy. In other words, you’ll be hearing some of the same things I teach Police Cadets a couple of times a year. In addition to being a OPOTC certified Legal Instructor, I am also certified as a Certified Firearm Specialist through the International Firearm Specialist Academy, so I’ll add some tidbits I’ve learned about federal gun laws along the way.
So let’s get back to the case that I referenced earlier. In this case, the defendant was initially charged with Domestic Violence, a misdemeanor of the 1st degree (M1). According to the court documents, the defendant eventually pled to a charge of Assault, which is also an M1, apparently thinking this would not prohibit him from owning firearms in the future. After pleading guilty to Assault, the defendant tried to collect a firearm he won in a raffle, but was unable to do so because the background check showed that he was now prohibited from owning firearms under federal law because of the Assault conviction. I’ll cover why he is now under a disability in another post down the road. Today I want to focus on why he pled guilty in the first place. According to the appeal, neither the Defendant’s attorney, nor the Judge who accepted his plea advised him that by pleading guilty to Assault he may forfeit his right to ever own firearms again. So his argument is that his plea was not a valid guilty plea since it was based on incomplete information. Now obviously we all probably agree that his attorney dropped the ball. But here’s the real kicker – the Judge was required, by law, to “inform the defendant either personally or in writing that under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9) it may be unlawful for the person to ship, transport, purchase, or possess a firearm or ammunition as a result of any conviction for a misdemeanor offense of violence.” The record reflects that this never happened. Well, then his plea should be tossed out, right? You’d think so, but no. The same section of the law that requires the judge to inform the defendant about the possible consequences also says “The plea may not be vacated based on a failure to inform the person so charged regarding the restrictions under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9).” Seriously?!?!?
So now the defendant has to appeal this decision, if he can afford to, to the Supreme Court of Ohio. I have no idea if the defendant was actually guilty or if he took a plea to avoid the risk of ending up with a DV conviction. And don’t think I’m trying to defend a domestic abuser, this case just happened to involve a DV but there are other crimes where the end result would be the same. But if I was in his shoes I would have done my own research before I pled to anything. A simple internet search would have showed that pleading to Assault was a bad idea from the start. So what’s the moral of the story? Get legal advice from someone who specializes in that area of law. For example, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you would be better served by sitting down with an attorney who specializes in firearm laws and paying for a consultation to talk about the ramifications of pleading to some other charge. A couple hundred bucks up front may save you a lot of heartache.
I’ve been in law enforcement for 26 years. I’ve seen attorneys give their clients REALLY bad advice over the years. Advice that had come back to bite their clients right in the butt. My wife works in the court system and she sees/hears attorneys tell their clients things that flat out aren’t true on a regular basis. Do yourself a favor and learn enough about the law to ask intelligent questions from a qualified attorney. Not all attorneys are created equal. Remember, it’s your neck on the chopping block, not theirs. Save yourself.
