Was convicted of a felony drug related charge (no weapons or violence
involved) in Missouri in 1979, given 10 years suspended, 5 years
probation. Moved out of state at that time.

Completed probation (early) and in the exit interview my probation
officer in Arizona recommended that I contact the FBI and have them do
a background check on myself to restore my rights to have a weapon. He
was one of my references to the FBI and a big help to me all around.
Seems that they were doing this way back then and upon completion, my
rights to own and possess firearms were restored by the FBI, but ON
THE FEDERAL LEVEL ONLY. They have since shut this program down and are
not doing it any longer. I have a hard copy of this letter from the
FBI stating that my rights have been restored.

Since this time have not been in any trouble and even held military
security clearances for many years. I moved back to Arizona a while
ago and was told by the sheriff?s office that the law had been changed
and it was now illegal for me as a convicted felon to have a weapon
here no matter if it was legal in the past, which it was when I lived
here in the 1980's.

Have done a bit of legal legwork and believe that I have found that if
a person was convicted before 1992 (which I was) that there has been a
Arizona court of appeals ruling that says that the Arizona law
prohibiting a felon from owning a weapon on a state level is not legal
as long as the conviction was before this date.
(http://www.apltwo.ct.state.az.us/Decisions/cr20010020.pdf)

I looked as well at the Arizona statutes and find that it states in
ARS 13.3100 that : 6. "Prohibited possessor" means any person:
 (b) Who has been convicted within or without this state of a felony
or who has been adjudicated delinquent and whose civil right to
possess or carry a gun or firearm has not been restored.
I have been convicted of a felony but also have had my rights to own a
firearm restored. Paragraph ?B? seems to give me relief in this but
why is the sheriff?s office telling me that I am still not allowed to
have a weapon?

(http://www.azleg.state.az.us/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/13/03101.htm&Title=13&DocType=ARS)


I need some futher help on this and hopefully from someone who
understands the law a lot better than I do. I have talked with a
couple of lawyers about this but none were familiar with this area of
the law and I cannot afford to pay them $100?s per hour to learn.
There may be other rulings or laws that pertain to my situation but
have no experience with things like this. I just got lucky in finding
the above ruling but need some help.

As well do not want to make a lot of waves or get the sheriff?s office
perturbed at me if I am overlooking something, but if I understand the
above information correctly, am I now legal again to possess a
firearm? Do not want anything exciting but for home protection and my
family it would be nice to be able to defend myself.

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 18 May 2005 14:10 PDT

Did the sheriff's office cite the statute upon which their statement
was based, or did you ask them to do so? It doesn't seem unreasonable
to me that you would do so, and, if they cite the statutes with which
you are familiar, to continue the dialog in a reasonable manner.

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by weiserrw-ga on 18 May 2005 16:01 PDT

No they did not and were not very friendly. They did go on to say that
while it was legal for me to own and possess a firearm in the 1980's
when I lived here before, they did go on to say that the current
sheriff interpeted the law to mean that it was illegal at this time
and that I would be arrested if found in possession.

I dropped it for several years then started thinking about it recently
after reading something in the newspaper which led me to the Court of
Appeals ruling I quoted in the first post.