United States Vs. Randy Edwards Hayes
May 1, 2008
Here’s another gun case headed for the U.S. Supreme Court sometime this fall. Here’s the shortened version of how it got to this point.
In 1994, Randy Edwards Hayes of Marion County, West Virginia pleaded guilty to a West Virginia law charging him with misdemeanor battery against his ex-wife.
In 1996, it became federal law that if convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor, you can no longer possess a firearm.
In 2004, police found a rifle in Hayes’ home and charged him with illegal possession of a firearm after a domestic violence conviction.
Hayes lawyers argue that it is unconstitutional to apply a new law to an old conviction and they say there is a difference between Hayes’ plead to a state misdemeanor battery charge and a federal domestic violence charge.
Any ruling in the case is bound to have interesting consequences in the treatment of gun laws and how new laws affect past crimes.
I’ll try to follow this interesting case.
Tom Remington
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hello fellow hunters,
this new supreme court case involving Randy Edward Hayes and his misdemeanor domestic violence conviction and subsequent indictment into federal court is huge for certain guys, like me and Randy. I am an Honorably discharged Persian Gulf War Veteran and a father of four young kids. I have been an avid outdoorsman my whole life and would like to pass this on to my children, although I realize that the Second Amendment means much more than hunting. I gave it all up because of a stupid fight with my wife, (the mom of all four of my kids) and she called the cops on me and off to jail I went. We have long since reconciled but yet this charge and conviction remains on my record for life and bars me from exercising my God given right to keep and bear arms. Randy needs the NRA to step up and file a brief on his behalf. Have you seen the list of folks that he has against him in this case?Brady Center, Womens Groups, Democatic Senators Frank Lautenberg and Diane Fienstien and many others that hate the second amendment.
Domestic Violence is a serious social issue. It is best to be brought out in the open and to see if there is help for whatever problems are being faced in whatever family that is having the conflicts. But for Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of Mass. to try again to kill the Second Amendment is outrageous and must be stopped. Take a look at the Senators Record on the Second Amendment and you will soon learn that his real reason and call is not to prevent domestic violence but instead that he is completely geared towards killing the second amendment.
Ed,
there is a legal process you can go thru to scrub your conviction and get those rights back so you could own guns again, friend of mine just went thru it, hell he even bought silencers via ATF approval recently. Its spendy but you can do it.
Greg, what is that process called? Which attorney did he use? How did it work? Help us out here…
There are many unintended consequences of this Lautenberg tripe.
Banned for life for Disturbing the Peace 415(1)??? How can that be?
@Ed, I’m with you….. The actual spouse batterers are scum…but what about those of us that have been ruined because of a false accusation?
The problem with expungement and record clearing with reguards to lautenberg is that many states such as California offer no way to clear a mistomeaner that is excepted by the Federal Govenment. California and many other states expungements state that if you are arrested for the same crime later that the original conviction can still be used against you and when applying for certian employnent such as real estate broker, police officer or contractor with the state lottery the arrest and conviction will allways show up.
the ruling came in yesterday, the former decision was reversed, the case was remanded