My Brother is presently involved a messy divorce. His soon to be ex reported to the police that he (my Brother) had a gun in his house and now faces a possible 24 month jail time. This gun was kept in a safe, not used, and was a family keepsake. My brother was convicted many years back for a drug charge and has since lived a clean and lawful life. Is there any case or situation that would exempt him from this charge? As you can imagine his soon to be ex is working hard to have him locked up and it is not fair and his attorney does not seem to be aggressivley seeing if there are cases where this can be dismissed! Help!!!
I am afraid your brother has a big problem. The state and federal laws make no provision in the laws regarding felons in possession of firearms for collectors firearms. I am afraid that this is something his attorney cannot be too aggressive about. There are no cases stating a felon can inherit a firearm or could have a collector's firearm I am afraid. The only way he could possibly get out of this is if he could prove he had no way to even get into the safe and did not know the gun was in there. If he can prove there was no way he had any way to get into the safe and did not know the gun was in there, that is the reasonable doubt he would need to get found not guilty. I am very sorry to say that absent proving that legally this case is very tough because there are no cases saying what you would like them to say in PA or in the federal cases.
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Thank You very much for your super-fast service. I was hopeful but also realistic that there was no good news. Can I ask that if he claims he did not have knowledge of the guns existence in his home it then becomes he said - she said right?
He would have to have some kind of proof and some proof he did not have access to the safe. The problem here is he would have to claim someone put it there without his knowledge and I have seen people put someone on the stand to testify that they stored a weapon without the knowledge of the convicted felon, so it is an argument, but the courts are VERY suspicious of such defenses and if they catch the person lying they will jail them and your brother.
Okay, in speaking with him just now he says that he had removed the gun from the premises and thought his Mother had the gun. In fact, his ex had actually hidden the gun in the house to use at a later time (knowing he should not have a gun in the house). Suddenly, the ex pulls the gun out from hiding in the house and calls the police. I know this is all emotional and sounds to be unproven, but as it turns out it thought his mother had taken the gun.
He cannot say he touched it at all. We have had convictions on defendants where they went to a sporting goods store and merely held a gun in the store. Thus, if he says that he removed the gun from the premises himself, he could have a problem. If his mom testifies she took the gun then you have to explain how the ex got the gun and got it back into the safe. He needs to make sure this is air tight, because if not the court will pick it apart and more than just your brother could be going to jail.
Thank You very much... I hate to see a good guy get screwed as he waited until he was 50 to marry and hoped it was a good match. This "Broad" has turned out to be evil in ways that are unimaginable...
He is one of the good guys that made mistakes in his 20's and still has to live with the errors. Best, Sue (Loving Sister)
It is quite the shame when these things happen, especially when it is done because of a vindictive spouse or ex spouse. The only thing you can do here is hope you can create enough reasonable doubt here regarding his knowledge the weapon was there.