Attorney General Bonta: Felons Should Not Own Guns

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Bonta today, as part of a coalition of 22 attorneys general, filed a brief with an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of the U.S. government’s defense of a federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which prohibits felons from possessing firearms. The case, United States v. Duarte, presents the question of whether federal law that prohibits the possession of firearms by individuals convicted of felonies violates the Second Amendment. The defendant in the case, Duarte, had previously been convicted of five separate California felonies when he was arrested for unlawfully possessing a gun under federal law.

“It is commonsense that felons should not own nor have access to firearms,” said Attorney General Bonta. “States must maintain the ability to keep weapons out of the hands of individuals who have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have violated state and federal felony criminal laws. My office will always fight to protect Californians from gun violence.”

Duarte was found guilty in the Central District of California for violating § 922(g)(1) after he discarded a handgun from a vehicle that was under police surveillance. However, a three-judge panel overturned this conviction, concluding that barring him from owning firearms violates Duarte’s Second Amendment rights. Duarte had five prior California felony convictions, including charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance, and two counts of evading law enforcement. He was characterized as a “nonviolent” offender by the panel, which held that Duarte’s particular prior offenses are "nonviolent" and not “of a nature serious enough to justify permanently depriving him of his fundamental Second Amendment rights.” 

The brief argues that the court should reject Duarte’s invitation to upend these longstanding laws on a case-by-case basis. Consistent with founding-era laws dispossessing persons convicted of serious but nonviolent offenses (like horse theft and forgery), States have long exercised their authority to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who are not law-abiding, and nearly all states have restricted felons from possessing firearms.

A copy of the brief can be found here.