Posted on 04/17/2010 7:54:18 PM PDT by hiho hiho
Jerry Wilson, Soloflex founder, didn’t know his son, Brian, had a cache of semi-automatic weapons at his business’ campus
Barring a prior felony conviction, the guns that Brian D. Wilson was storing at his father’s business would have been legal.
But Wilson was convicted of a felony weapons charge in 2008. So when detectives entered the out buildings at the elder Wilson’s business on Badertscher Road near North Plains, they knew it was trouble.
As a felon, Brian Wilson is banned from owning any guns, let alone the AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles he was hoarding. As a result, he’s now in Washington County Jail with multiple weapons charges.
Brian Wilson’s dad, Jerry Wilson, famous for founding Soloflex, told investigators he had no idea the guns were on his sprawling rural property.
Sgt. David Thompson, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s office, said that’s plausible, considering the size of the buildings the guns were stored in.
Jerry Wilson is one of the most flamboyant activists on the left-side of Oregon’s political aisle, using the profits from his iconic exercise equipment business to fund a variety of causes. In the 1980s, he bankrolled a failed effort to legalize pot. In the 1990s, he spent more than $1 million in a long battle to shut down the Trojan Nuclear Plant.
Earlier this year Jerry Wilson launched a third-party campaign for governor, pushing for public campaign financing, pardoning inmates convicted of “victimless” crimes and the establishment of a state bank, to make no-interest business loans.
I think it depends on the type of felony crime committed.
I believe if the felon used guns in the committing of the felony, and killed people during the felony, they should never have guns again.
If they used weapons in the felony but didn’t kill anyone, I believe there should be a time period they have to keep their noses clean and be cleared by a review panel before being able to have guns again.
If the felony was a non-violent felony and they didn’t just hire others to use guns and kill people (ie white collar crime, tax evasion etc, certain drunk driving crimes) then I don’t think they should lose the ability to have a gun.
I also do not agree ever that misdemeanor crimes should ever forfeit gun rights. Never.
I am telling you I am a guy for punishment fitting the crime. If you commit a crime with deadly weapons you have proven you cannot be trusted with those weapons in the future, society would be stupid and negligent to allow those people to ever be armed again. If you commit crimes that are non-violent and don’t have any weapons involved, it’s wrong to take those rights away, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
I doubt anyone including all LEOs would come out clean if all the laws and statutes and ordinances were thrown at them.
I see it differently. A firearm is just an inanimate tool. If a sound conclusion can be made that a person is too untrustworthy and likely to be violent that they can't be trusted to legally own a gun then they aren't fit to be in society at all IMO. It makes no sense to me to trust someone to obey a gun control law if I don't trust them not to commit armed robbery or murder.
... I believe there should be a time period they have to keep their noses clean and be cleared by a review panel before being able to have guns again.
That sounds like probation.
The article smacks of the author being an anti-freedom, anti-2nd amendment pansy. That being said, the “no arms for felons” thing should be subjective to the individual, not the crime.
“I also hate the way they charge a suspect with every crime under the sun.”
And don’t forget that he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, was talking on his cell phone, and had no proof of insurance.
It's called "overcharging", and is done so that the person being arrested will eventually plead guilty to one of the lesser charges in case they can't fabricate enough evidence to make the big one stick.
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