No, You Cannot Possess It
Video Transcribed: Tahlequah Criminal Attorney Ryan Cannonie with the Wirth Law Tahlequah office, If you’re like me, you grew up in Eastern Oklahoma, Northeastern Oklahoma, and you might’ve grown up around firearms. I grew up, my dad had guns, my grandpa, all my relatives, my mom knew how to shoot.
At an early age, they taught me how to shoot, and it’s something that I think is kind of ingrained in our… Somewhat of our culture here in Oklahoma is that most people have been around firearms. But did you know, if you take any type of felony plea, and this includes not just a suspended conviction, which most people know felons can’t own firearms, which is a conviction.
But even if you do a plea that’s not a conviction, let’s say a deferment, and a deferment means that you are not convicted. You have probation, you have basically the same things as you would under a felony conviction probation.
You will have fines and costs, supervision, different rules you have to follow. But at the end of your deferment, then you can get it expunged from your record. So you can be in one of those up to seven years in Oklahoma. The prosecutor can offer only up to seven years, but he can offer up to seven years on misdemeanor or felony. It doesn’t really specify, but you can be under that type of probation.
If you’re under a felony deferment, you cannot own a firearm. Or I guess I should say you can not possess a firearm. Cannot possess it. Cannot have it in your house. Cannot have it in your vehicle. Now, so what does that mean to you?
Well, that means that if you’re riding in a car and you and your buddy just went hunting, you and a friend just went out and did some skeet shooting and there’s a gun in the car and you’re on a, let’s not even go that long, let’s say you’re on a two year felony deferred for a bogus check. Doesn’t matter what the charges. It could be bogus check, could be malicious injury to property, could be a DUI. That’s a good one.
If you’re on a two year deferment for a DUI and there’s a gun in the car and you’re aware of it, then you can be hit with felon in possession of firearm or person on felony probation in possession of firearm or riding in a vehicle or a passenger in a vehicle, operating a vehicle in which a firearm is kept, residing in a residence where a firearm is kept, and that is a much more serious offense. Not only does it look like you are a dangerous felon who has firearms, but it can be used to accelerate your probation and your deferment making you have now two felony convictions, rather than just the one they’re trying to put on you or the one that was going to go away in a year or two.
So what happens if you find yourself in this situation? Well, the first thing you should do is definitely not answer any questions. Evoke your right to silence. That is going to be your number one step in just about every criminal case, but still need to say it, I guess.
The second thing is to give us a call. We can help. We can look over your case. There’s a lot of case all that goes with felon in possession of firearm. When I say felony possession of firearm, I mean just the umbrella term of personal deferred probation, riding in a vehicle, in a residence, just umbrella term of felon in possession of firearm.
There’s constructive possession, which means that maybe they don’t even catch you with it, but they have someone who could say you had it. There is also a knowledge requirement. There’s a whole bunch of different things that go into this. So if you find yourself in this situation, give us a call. We’ll look over your case. Maybe we can help. Thank you.
