Hunting, pardons and a Second Amendment claim?
This local article from North Carolina has me thinking again about whether a few felons might have a viable constitutional claim if (when?) the Supreme Court decides that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. Here are excerpts from the article:
As a boy, Gary Don Holt would roam the woods with his father and uncles, hunting for rabbits. It’s been more than two decades since he had the chance. Arrested for marijuana possession in Onslow County in 1986, Holt is a convicted felon and must stay away from guns. When his father dies, he’ll have to ask his sister to hold on to a family heirloom he has been promised: a shotgun passed from father to son for generations.
Holt’s felony at the age of 21 has robbed him of much over the years: jobs, jury duty, promotions. Of all he’s missed, not being able to hunt is one of the biggest sacrifices. Holt’s father is getting old, and he’d like to shoot at critters in the woods with him once more. Holt, a supervisor at a furniture warehouse in High Point, turned to Gov. Mike Easley to make that happen. Twice, he’s asked Easley for a pardon. Twice, Easley has turned him down.
“It was like a sledgehammer hitting me,” Holt said. “I’ve turned out so good. I thought there was no way he could turn me down.” Easley has heard pleas like Holt’s before. Each year, a dozen or so would-be hunters beg Easley for pardons. Though a pardon wouldn’t clean their records, it would give back certain privileges such as the ability to possess a firearm.
Among the recent requests: A Duplin County Boy Scout leader who sold marijuana in college wants the chance to hunt with his teenage son. A Dunn man who said he accidentally shot his girlfriend to death wants to hunt with his children. A 68-year-old homebuilder in Alamance County accused of taking indecent liberties with a girl wants to hunt one last time.
Easley has the power to forgive each one but is frugal with his pardons. Since he took office in 2001, he has pardoned five people, each one a man who had received prison time for crimes that another man committed….
“I feel like I’m still doing time for the crime, for 21 years,” Holt said. “Don’t you get to be done at some point?” When police arrested him in 1986, Holt said he was immature and smoked pot recreationally. He would give it away to friends. Holt said one of the friends informed on him to get a break on a pending criminal charge. Holt agreed to plead guilty and was put on probation. He said he had no idea the implications of a felony conviction. “I thought it was a slap on the wrist,” Holt said. “I was just grateful I wasn’t going to prison.”
Since then, Holt has put himself through community college and has become a certified emergency medical technician. He teaches martial arts to police officers for free and coaches his 9-year-old daughter’s basketball team. His sisters, a colleague, friends and even his ex-wife wrote letters to the governor vouching for his good character. “I feel I’m more than responsible to have a gun,” he said.
Without a pardon, hunting is too big a risk. Federal law prohibits felons from owning, using or even handling any type of gun.
As I have suggested in some prior posts about the Second Amendment, I think a felon like Holt might have a viable constitutional defense to a criminal prosecution for going hunting if the Supreme Court ultimately holds that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms subject only to reasonable regulation in the name of public safety.
In this context, consider the analogy to other Bill of Rights freedoms: does anyone dispute that Gary Don Holt still has a robust right to free speech and to the free exercise of his religion despite his status as a felon? Why should his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms (assuming it is an individual right and not a collective right) be afforded so much less protection that his First Amendment right unless and until the government can reasonably show he poses a clear threat to public safety?
Some related posts: