Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

It is that time again, Lawyer Talk Podcast Q and A. That means question and answer, where I take our listeners' questions, and I try to provide the best answer I can. And you might ask as a question where people ask me questions, and they can do that in a couple of different ways. Go to lawyer talk podcast.com. You can just send a question that way. There's a little email interface. That's how this question, today came along. Or you can go to the socials.

Steve Palmer [00:00:25]:

You can leave comments, and we try to monitor those comments and get back to folks right here live on the mic, or even reply to comments. And every now and then, I reply to people directly by email, particularly when they send me an email on the website, if it's something that's a little more sensitive. So don't worry, I protect the names and the faces to, or I keep the names and faces quiet to protect, you know, whatever the saying goes. You get it. Anyway, this is a question from Mike, and this came on the website. How do I proceed in getting my firearm privileges reinstated after my nonviolent felony charges and no other violent crimes on the record? There's a lot baked into this question that probably would require more information to give a definitive answer. So I'm gonna sort of answer it generally. Typically speaking, if you have a felony, that is punishable by more than 1 year, then that's a firearm exclusion, you know, by federal law.

Steve Palmer [00:01:20]:

That's a federal firearm exclusion. And and by the way, there are also individual state law, requirements that come into play. So don't think just because you pass on the federal side, you get by on the state side or vice versa. You have to cover both. But typically speaking, let's say you've got a disqualifying felony, and it's a nonviolent felony as this one is, and you want to get your firearm rights restored. Well, you may already have firearm rights. They may not have been, necessarily, suspended if the prison sentence for the particular offense didn't exceed a year, and it wasn't, it didn't involve something called a family or household member, I think, domestic violence or other non or other non qualifying offense or whatever you would say, then you might already have some firearm rights. It might be tricky, to go past the background checks because sometimes there's, you know, different requirements where they come up or you get flagged, and and it gets a little bit more dicey to deal with those background checks.

Steve Palmer [00:02:15]:

But, it may not be a disqualifier. Now let's say that it is though. Typically, this fastest path to getting your firearm rights restored is something called an expungement. And in Ohio, we have two things. We have record sealing and record expungement. Both would be sufficient most of the time to, to get you back on track to being able to possess firearms. How do you do that? Well, if it's an offense that can be expunged or sealed, typically, nonviolent fences nonviolent offenses, lower level, felonies and misdemeanors in Ohio. It's it's it's easier than ever in Ohio to expunge or seal your record.

Steve Palmer [00:02:51]:

You go apply. You file a petition with the court. You have a hearing. The standard is basically, what is the government's interest in having this maintained on your record balanced against your interest in having it removed from your record. Generally, if you trying to get jobs and you can't, you're trying to get an apartment and you can't, that's enough. Most most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time, people are able to get their record if they're eligible, sealed or expunged, sometimes they're not. Now if it's something that can't be sealed or expunged, it gets a lot more complex. It gets a lot more difficult and maybe even impossible, to get your firearms rights back, particularly, say, for instance, federal felonies can't really get those expunged or sealed, and that may be a disqualifier forever, to the extent there is any way around that.

Steve Palmer [00:03:39]:

I will punt this off. I will defer. I believe it or not, I don't know everything, but I've got a very good close colleague professionally who does. And I work with this gentleman, Derek DeBras, and you know him on YouTube as the gun lawyer. Look him up. I'll leave a link, if I can, where he's addressed this topic and many others in his YouTube channel. There's also another podcast I do with Derek called Munitions Podcast, and you can check that out. But, he's the guy.

Steve Palmer [00:04:03]:

He is the guy that would know, and he's the guy that can help for the more complicated things. And and when people call me and it's it's complex, I call Derek, and, we work together to to try to get people restored. For whatever it's worth, I believe strongly in the second amendment when people second amendment rights. And in fact, all constitutional rights, I don't discriminate. I think they're all, valuable, and we should all try to protect them as much as we can. And that means if you can get your firearm rights restored, let's do it as long as you can do it safely and legally. If you've got your question if you got your own question about this or any other topic, lawyertalkpodcast.com, leave it in the comments, where we are coming at you off the record, but on the air each and every week, at least until now.