Third Circuit has once again ruled that a Pennsylvania man can own firearms despite his felony-level conviction.
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A 30-year-old conviction for lying on a food stamp application cannot result in lifetime disarmament.
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“I see no historical analogue for the lifetime disarmament of an otherwise free citizen,” Judge Peter Phipps wrote. “Once a citizen repays his debt to society, a legislative restriction on the right to keep and bear arms based on nothing more than a prior conviction is without relevant historical antecedent. And legislation permanently disarming a person who has already repaid his debt to society is even further removed from our Founding-era heritage.”
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Monday’s opinion came from an en banc panel, it will stand unless the Supreme Court overturns it.