Bryan Range pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud in Pennsylvania in 1995. He served three years probation, paid restitution and a small fine. He also lost his gun rights.
That’s because “his conviction was classified as a Pennsylvania misdemeanor punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. That conviction precludes Range from possessing a firearm because federal law generally makes it ‘unlawful for any person . . . who has been convicted in any court, of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year’ to ‘possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition.’”
Range sued, arguing that he’d been wrongly deprived of his right to keep and bear arms. A June, 2023 Third Circuit en banc opinion agreed and restored Range’s right to keep and bear arms. Due to a Circuit Court split, the Supreme Court granted cert in the case, but remanded it back to the lower court after the Rahimi decision was handed down.
Today, however, the Third Circuit reaffirmed its earlier finding that someone who commits a “nonviolent, nondangerous misdemeanor” and hasn’t been incarcerated cannot be deprived of his Second Amendment rights. You can read the ruling here.
As the Court wrote . . .
Our decision today is a narrow one. Bryan Range challenged the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) only as applied to him given his violation of 62 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 481(a). Range remains one of “the people” protected by the Second Amendment, and his eligibility to lawfully purchase a rifle and a shotgun is protected by his right to keep and bear arms. More than two decades after he was convicted of foodstamp fraud and completed his sentence, he sought protection from prosecution under § 922(g)(1) for any future possession of a firearm. The record contains no evidence that Range poses a physical danger to others. Because the Government has not shown that our Republic has a longstanding history and tradition of depriving people like Range of their firearms, § 922(g)(1) cannot constitutionally strip him of his Second Amendment rights.
This again creates a Circuit Court split. Next stop, Supreme Court…again. Watch this space.
Neat we see some limits to how the government can exploit exceptions.