Ohio State Supreme Court Rules Felons Can Petition for Gun Rights Restoration

I don’t like the idea of bad guys having guns. The problem, though, is that there’s nothing I can do about that since it’s not like bad guys follow the law. So, if I want to preserve my rights, I have to stand for the rights of other people whom I might not really trust all that much. That includes shady people who haven’t been convicted of anything.

It also means I have to believe that people shouldn’t be denied their rights for past misdeeds. While some are recidivists through and through, many others make their mistake, pay their debt to society, but then keep paying their debt well after their release because they’re still treated like criminals.

And the Ohio State Supreme Court just ruled that those folks can petition the state to get their gun rights back.

The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled Tuesday that a person barred from possessing a gun following a state and federal conviction may petition to have state firearms rights reinstated.

The 6-1 ruling said that a federal ban does not prevent a person from petitioning to have their state firearms rights reinstated if the state and federal prohibition stems from the same conviction, according to a news release from the state Supreme Court.

The ruling came after an Allen County man, Patrick Heffley, was convicted in 2006 of domestic violence. Due to his conviction, Heffley was prohibited by both state and federal law from possessing firearms.

Heffley filed his application to have his firearms rights restored in 2023 after serving his prison sentence and paying fines owed. After his application was denied, he appealed, and the case rose to the Third District.

After the Third District’s ruling that Heffley was not otherwise prohibited by law because his ban stemmed from a single conviction, the Allen County prosecutor’s office appealed to the Supreme Court.

The court said that under federal law, a person’s firearms rights can be restored if the state restores them.

This is an obviously good ruling. 

I mean, Heffley was convicted 20 years ago of domestic violence, which isn’t something anyone should make light of, but he’s apparently kept his nose clean for two decades. Anyone can lose their cool, and while I’m not going to excuse it, it seems he learned his lesson and hasn’t gone down that road since.

I’m glad to see it. 

While I’d prefer the rights restoration to happen automatically, the truth is that I’m probably never going to see that in my lifetime. Instead, being able to petition to get your rights back is the next best thing, and Heffley getting his rights back via this process is good news, and not just for him.

This will open the door for a lot of people who have made mistakes, learned from them, and walked the straight and narrow since, but would like to get their gun rights restored to them.

One reason many people are recidivists is that they continue to be treated like criminals anyway, so they figure they’ll do what they have to do. While this won’t actually stop that–they tend to be treated as such while looking for jobs and the like–it’s a sign that some people are starting to realize that “paying one’s debt to society” really should come with an end date.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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