Guns In America
This article is part of a series on Guns in America that explores the use of firearms in our country and the debate over gun control. This is an editorially independent series sponsored by Tactical Firearms Training Secrets.
“To Broadly Disarm Anyone Who Has Ever Been Involved In
Even A Minor Scuffle, 45 Years Later, Seems To Be Excessive.”
Even A Minor Scuffle, 45 Years Later, Seems To Be Excessive.”
Becket Adams, TheBlaze — his article is part of a series on Guns in America that explores the use of firearms in our country and the debate over gun control. This is an editorially independent series sponsored by Tactical Firearms Training Secrets.A 19-year-old sailor stationed in Annapolis, Md., in 1968 was arrested for getting into a fight with an alleged member of a street gang.
Now, 45 years later, he has been stripped of his right to own a gun.
Jefferson Wayne Schrader, 64, has been fighting a losing battle in the courts since 2008 to get his name off the fed’s firearm ban list. In fact, just last month, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld a lower-court ruling barring the U.S. Navy veteran from Cleveland, Ga., from owning a firearm.
“It’s a depressing thing. A depressing thing,” he told TheBlaze in a phone interview, “to have the government treat you like that. It’s not, well, it’s not a good thing.”
The ban list is meant to prevent people of questionable standing, including illegal aliens, drug addicts, people dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military, and fugitives, from buying or selling guns.
And although Schrader — a certified expert with a handgun — served in Vietnam from Jan. 1, 1968, until being honorably discharged in September 1970, the U.S. government believes he is unfit to own a gun because of his teenage misdemeanor.
“Due to a conviction some forty years ago for common-law misdemeanor assault and battery for which he served no jail time, plaintiff Jefferson Wayne Schrader, now a sixty-four-year-old veteran, is, by virtue of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), barred for life from ever possessing a firearm,” U.S. Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote in the court’s January opinion.
“In rejecting plaintiffs’ constitutional claim, the district court relied on the Supreme Court’s observation in District of Columbia v. Heller … that ‘the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,’ as well as the Court’s inclusion of ‘longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons’ within a list of ‘presumptively lawful regulatory measures,’” Judge Tatel added.
In its ruling against Schrader, the fed appeals court cited the Gun Control Act of 1968 signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, which makes it more difficult for questionable characters to engage in interstate commerce involving firearms.But we’ll come back to that later.
The other gun law that led to Schrader’s odd set of circumstances is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. This bill laid the groundwork for the FBI’s 1998 National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
So when Schrader tried to buy a handgun in 2008, the NICS flagged his 45-year-old misdemeanor – which only now qualifies in Maryland for a sentence of two or more years in prison – and he was disqualified from making the purchasing.
But here’s the weird thing: Schrader has been selling and trading guns for a long time.
“I’ve bought and sold probably, oh, a dozen … maybe 15 guns over a 42 year time period” he said. “I never had a problem with it. I was just surprised it happened at all. The ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] agent said I wasn’t allowed to have any guns.”
“But he said I could keep my black powder rifle. Thank you very much,” he added sarcastically.
[...] see full article
REASON FOR THE BAN
After going more than five decades without any serious trouble with the law, the 2008 background check came as a shock to Schrader.
“I don’t know why they’re coming after me,” Schrader said. “All I did was punch someone in the nose.”
So what’s the court’s reasoning?
The Gun Control Act (remember we said we’d come back to this?) specifically includes a ban on anyone convicted of a misdemeanor punishable under state law by up to two years in prison.
Okay, but Schrader never had to serve a two-year prison sentence.
This is where it gets interesting. At the time of his arrest, the state of Maryland did not set any maximum sentence for common-law assault and battery convictions.
However, the DOJ reasons that because Maryland would have given him two or more years if it had the laws it has today, well, that’s good enough to keep Schrader on the banned list. » Full Article
Jefferson Wayne Schrader Photos (Courtesy Schrader family)
» TheBlaze
» Becket Adams Article Archive
About the Author
Hailing from South Bend, Ind., Becket Adams is one of 12 children. He graduated with a BA in history in 2008 before enrolling in a Master of Science in Business Analysis program two years later (after waiting tables and selling guitars) at The Catholic University of America. He has interned with The National Journalism Center and had the opportunity to serve as chief research assistant to both the Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso and The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore. Becket joined The Blaze after graduating from CUA and The NJC.
Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter
Guns In America
Here are the other pieces in our ongoing Guns in America series (running every Tuesday) sponsored by Tactical Firearms Training Secrets:» What Does History Say About When the Gov’t Tried to Restrict Guns in the Past?
» Being Shot Gave This Columbine Survivor Strong Views on Gun Control — Here’s Why He Opposes More Restrictions
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