FELON HAS HIS GUN OWNERSHIP RIGHTS RESTORED

The North Carolina Supreme Court has recently ruled that a 2004 law passed by the General Assembly was unconstitutional. In Britt v. State of N.C. , the Defendant was convicted in 1979 of a felony drug crime, and once his probation ended in 1982, his right to posess a firearm was restored.

    However, in 2004, our state legislators passed amended N.C. Gen. Stat. s. 14-415.1 which prohibited the possession of a firearm by any convicted felon, even if they were at their own home or business.

    After Mr. Britt learned of the amended law, he voluntarily surrendered his “sporting rifles and shotguns” and proceeded to challenge the law by filing a civil rights lawsuit against the state.  Our State’s highest Court ruled that the statute was an “unreasonable regulation” and “not fairly related to the preservation of public peace and safety.”