Q: Can I own a firearm if my husband is a convicted felon?
I have emailed the supreme courts and administration of hearings also and they told me to ask MSP and MSP told me to ask a lawyer I explained to them it would be locked in a safe, I would only have a key and combination to the safe he would not have access to it I have rights this violates my 2nd amendment and 28th amendment. The Supreme Court said they didn’t see an issue but MSP license division said speak to a lawyer regarding this matter. I don’t live in a safe neighborhood and I would take all the proper precautions and have it registered to me and have my license and he would not have the key or any access to it at all. I get different answers from everyone I speak to. If I got to I will file papers in the Supreme Court and have a hearing on this matter because I do not have a background and I have kids and I will protect them and my property.
A:
Your husband cannot own or “possess” a firearm. Possession encompasses “constructive possession,” which means the firearm is accessible to him. Any gun n the house he dwells in is close enough to be accessible.
“But my wife is the only one with a key or combination to the gun safe.” Prove it.
You will have to bring the gun into the home, take it out of the safe to clean it, transport it to the firing range to practice shooting it, etc. At all those times it will be out of the safe and accessible to your husband.
Your actions put your husband at risk. The burden of proving he had no access to the firearm is going to be on him and you. You yourself could be charged with aiding and abetting a felon to possess a firearm.
Your husband did something that cost him his right to own or possess a firearm. He cannot be in possession which means he cannot risk being in the same household as someone with a firearm.
Sure, you can argue he has no access to the gun in the safe. But if something happens that brings the police to the residence and there’s a gun and a convicted felon living there, he and possibly you are going to be charged. Then he and possibly you are facing jail time, new convictions, expensive attorneys fees, and having to prove to a judge or jury that your husband didn’t constructively possess (never had access to) your gun, even though you’re his spouse, and even though you would never lie to keep him out of jail. Are you certain you and he (a convicted felon) will be believed? Is that a risk you and your husband are willing to take?
This isn’t a clean cut legal question with a simple answer. Your husband’s issue is one that imposes upon him a burden, and if you choose to reside in the same household as him, and he with you, then you both accept the potential consequences of any decision to bring a firearm into the household, regardless of what safeguards you put into place. All those safeguards simply mean is that you have an argument that they were adequate. Nobody can predict how a judge or jury will rule on whether they were or not.
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