Darryl Smith, 42, a self-employed tow truck owner who lives down the street from Wright, said he finds it outrageous that police arrested his neighbor, who Smith said runs his business out of the home....
“His life is just as valuable as someone who doesn’t have a felony,” Smith said.
March 27, 2012
80-year-old man arrested after shooting a 19-year-old home intruder.
Key word: "after." Homer Wright was arrested because as a convicted felon, he is barred from owning a gun.
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"“His life is just as valuable as someone who doesn’t have a felony,” Smith said."
No it is not. Apparantly
His life is just as valuable as someone who hasn't been convicted of a felony.
This isn't a right-to-life issue.
His life, as valuable as it is, is also subject to certain laws. Just like everyone else's.
Having demonstrated that he can responsibly use the weapon, they should not prosecute.
"...because as a convicted felon, he is barred from owning a gun."
Shit; it's Chicago.
Can anyone really own a gun legally there?
He may be going to jail, but at least he's not going to the morgue.
What was his felony? Did he refuse to buy insurance, or refuse to pay the tax?. Or did he look in the box and see the pussy licking itself.
The left can quite easily ban everyone from owning a gun, by convicting more and more people of "felonies".
"Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book "Three Felonies a Day," referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. New technology adds its own complexity, making innocent activity potentially criminal."
I wish we could have a reasonable discussion about whether felons should retain their second amendment rights, but everyone, it appears, can be called a felon.
life isn't a twilight zone episode where the old man could have viewed the various outcomes like the punk kill or injure me or merely steal from me. looks like a righteous shooting.
too bad he can't sue the cops and prosecuters for failing in their duty to protect him.
Besides going to jail, losing my right to bear arms is the thing that scares me about breaking the law, which we all do daily, especially if we live somewhere like NY or LA.
My parent's neighbor is a felon.
Can't vote.
His crime? He put gravel on his lake shore. Instead of fighting it, he was advised to just plead and get it over with. He didn't realize that it was a felony.
Now he can't vote.
(Nor, presumably, legally own a gun.)
How can something be a felony and not even involve being sent to jail?
"Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book "Three Felonies a Day," referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws.
Breaking a law =! Committing a felony.
Seriously I feel sorry for anyone who is gullible enough to buy into this guy’s line of BS.
Anybody named "Homer Wright" has to be a stand up guy.
Sorta OT. But I have this image in my mind of Jesse Jackson driving to the airport in Chicago to fly to Florida to protest against Zimmerman. On the way to the Chicago airport, Jackson has to detour around 30-40 chalk body outlines of that weekend's shooting victims in Chicago.
It's not my gun. I don't own a gun. That would go against my situation and cause trouble. No, no siree, not me, no guns for me. I found it. It happened to be right there. I looked around in panic and there it was; like an angel heard my prayer and there it was having materialized in that instant so I used it. Sure, I fired the gun but no I would never own one. Guns are bad, they cause trouble, I don't even know what happened to it. The gun disappeared just like it appeared. I think the kids were getting ready for my 81st birthday, and then this happened.
We are not told much about the neighborhood or what kind of a rap sheet Mr Robinson has.
Does this mean Fat Albert and Rev Jessuh will not be showing up demanding Justice? Telling people how blacks are under attack?
Etc., etc....
PS Pogo's right. This is Chicago, as Paul Harvey used to say.
You expect justice here?
After all, this is the environment that gave us Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm.
According to the report in the Chicago Tribune:
Wright was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon after police discovered he had two prior weapons convictions from 1968 and 1994, officials said. Records show Wright also was convicted of theft in 1990. Wright turned his gun over to detectives.
"Seriously I feel sorry for anyone who is gullible enough to buy into this guy’s line of BS."
There is a pretty low threshold on what is a felony now days, and with the explosion of law making, it's hard not to simply break a law.
In CA the legislature passes about 1100 new laws every single year. I'm pretty sure what I just wrote is probably illegal. Of course they are all lawyers and everything looks like a nail to a hammer, which I know is an insult to hammers and also probably illegal.
Come get me. You'll never take me alive.
Oh shit, I'm SURE that's illegal, and I just admitted I know it. Goodbye cruel world.
I found a little more detail on the story:
”Wright was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon after police discovered he had two prior weapons convictions from 1968 and 1994, officials said. Records show Wright also was convicted of theft in 1990. Wright turned his gun over to detectives.”
"The sheer volume of modern law makes it impossible for an ordinary American household to stay informed. And yet, prosecutors vigorously defend the old legal maxim that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
That maxim may have been appropriate for a society that simply criminalized inherently evil conduct, such as murder, rape, and theft,
but it is wholly inappropriate in a labyrinthine regulatory regime that criminalizes activities that are morally neutral.
...The number of strict liability criminal offenses grew during the 20th century as legislators created scores of “public welfare offenses” relating to health and safety. Each
time a person sought to prove an innocent state-of-mind, the Supreme Court responded that there is “wide latitude” in the legislative power to create offenses and “to exclude
elements of knowledge and diligence from [their] definition.”
...Vicarious liability initially crept into regulations that were deemed necessary to control business enterprises. ..Note that vicarious liability has not been confined to the commercial regulation context.
The federal criminal code has become so voluminous that it not only bewilders the average citizen, but also the most able attorney."
from
STATEMENT
of
Timothy Lynch
Director, Project on Criminal Justice
Cato Institute
Washington, D.C.
before the
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
Committee on the Judiciary
United States House of Representatives
July 22, 2009
His life, as valuable as it is, is also subject to certain laws. Just like everyone else's.
He has a right to survive just like anybody else.
Shit; it's Chicago.
Can anyone really own a gun legally there?
Only if you're a cop. Or an alderman. Or the head of a city department.Or a friend of the mayor.
Who sent you anyway?
In general, too many folks are becoming felons for offenses that shouldn't be considered felonies.
I don't know how I feel about charging this man until I know what he was previously convicted of.
Even if it's right to prosecute him for having a weapon , I'm glad for him that he had the gun when he was burglarized!
I wonder if they'll prosecute.
Did he admit to owning the gun, and not just having it lying around in the house? That was a mistake.
@synova: You'd think the lawyer representing him would have said: If you plead this, it's a felony.
I agree though, for some things, if you don't go to jail, how can it be a felony? The answer, of course: Legislators convinced they had to do something about a problem.
Some parts of Chicago are as bad (or worse) as some parts of my city of Cleveland. Some folks are stuck in those rough and horrendous neighborhoods that no one is cleaning up, and a large percentage of them have low-level and non-violent felonies on their records.
You'd be insane to live in certain neighborhoods without a gun. Police response time in those neighborhoods is slow and violent crimes are rampant. So, you're almost forced to break the law if you wanna keep your home safe.
It's horrendous that people are arguing that convicted felons should be allowed to drive trucks, teach children, and hold administrative positions at government agencies.
er, wait, what were we arguing about again?
"I agree though, for some things, if you don't go to jail, how can it be a felony? The answer, of course: Legislators convinced they had to do something about a problem."
The prosecutors still often have a choice whether to seek a felony conviction or not. But prosecutors in America are WAY out of control. The entire American criminal justice system is pretty fucked up IMO.
Does not look like anyone will be claiming racism in this case, but you never know these days.
@Pogo,
any citizen of Chicago who can get an Illinois FOID can presumably own a gun legally. (Presuming that they follow Chicago and Illinois rules for storing, transporting, and safekeeping of the firearm.)
It's that FOID thing that is hard to get in Chicago.
It's that FOID thing that is hard to get in Chicago.
It's not any harder than for anybody else in the state. You might have to go to one of the collar counties to do it since gun stores have all but been outlawed within the city limits.
Until recently it was a felony to own a handgun within the city limits unless you were one of the exempted-see my post above.
A long time ago I worked on the near south side about six blocks from western ave. It wasn't unusual to find bullet holes in your car when you went home at night.
Are folks not noticing that commenters have twice already posted information that Wright had been convicted twice previously on weapons charges?
Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.
Ain't just felonies...some misdemeanors will also result in a lifetime ban on purchasing firearms.
I think the Republicans are absolutely horseshit wrong on this.
Once you serve your time, you should be made whole again. You have atoned for your wrong. We should accept all people who serve their time back into our community.
We need to make him a citizen again.
Right to vote, right to own a gun, the works.
Also, his criminal records should be wiped clean. Fresh start.
St Croix, so you think that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was a partisan, Republican, legislative act?
St Croix, so you think that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was a partisan, Republican, legislative act?
I was thinking of voting, actually. The Republicans don't think felons should be allowed to vote (on the grounds, I suspect, that they will likely vote Democratic).
I imagine liberals are the driving force behind any gun control act. But denying rights to felons, Republicans are big on that.
From wikipedia: Organizations such as the National Rifle Association have been noted to oppose only some of the act's restrictions, while supporting others such as those forbidding the selling of firearms to convicted criminals...
It's Republicans who are hardest on crime, in my opinion. And they continue to be hard even after time has been served and the criminal is a free man. I think that's horseshit. And unconstitutional. You can't strip a man of citizenship. And that's what we're talking about here.
"It wasn't unusual to find bullet holes in your car when you went home at night."
That's impossible - people who shoot cars are not allowed to have guns - it's illegal.
So would Mr. Wright have been OK if he used a Ninja sword or baseball bat?
I agree with St Croix
Robin said...
St Croix, so you think that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was a partisan, Republican, legislative act?
It was designed to keep Negroes from owning firearms.
Only the right kind of people should be allowed to defend themselves.
The good news?
If you are the legal owner of a registered WW2 .303 Bren gun, it's worth a cool million.
File this story under "Why do liberals hate minorities"?
I tend to think that certain felonies should mean a lifetime ban from voting, or firearms ownership.
Not simply "serve your time and the slate is wiped clean".
I don't want a twice convicted armed robber given the right to arm himself once he does his 6 years for his 2nd offense.
I don't want some murderer freed after 14 years given the right to vote when his victim never again can.
It is stupid though to thing "All felons are the same!" and treat someone sent up on a 3rd degree drug possession felony or embezzlement to the same lifetime strictures as a freed violent felony perp.
The same stupidity goes with the logic that ANY sex offense - like urinating in public with "exposure" plead down to a fine...should land someone on a lifetime sex offenders list with lifetime loss of certain freedoms..along with the rapists and kiddie porn guys.
You have to be alive to be arrested.
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