SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A man did not forfeit his Second Amendment rights because of a past, nonviolent felony conviction, wrote the ACLU, the ACLU of Nevada, the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Southern California, the ACLU of Arizona, and the ACLU of Alaska in an amicus brief last week in United States v. Duarte.
The ACLU asserted, “Mr. (Steven) Duarte was charged and convicted under an extremely broad federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which makes it a federal crime for anyone previously convicted of a state or federal criminal offense with a potential sentence of one year or longer to possess a firearm.”
The ACLU charged under this law more than 20 million Americans who have been convicted of felonies are banned from legally possessing a gun.
Additionally, if convicted under Section 922(g)(1), the accused risks prison sentences of up to 15 years, the ACLU stated, adding this applies to cases where the individual may have been found with a gun in their possession temporarily.
Cecilia Wang, the deputy legal director at ACLU stated that, “As a matter of law, Mr. Duarte’s conviction fails the Supreme Court’s constitutional test because there is no history or tradition to support the permanent stripping of Second Amendment rights based solely on a past criminal conviction.”
The ACLU explained this law not only drives mass incarceration, but also leads to increased racial inequalities in the criminal justice system.
The ACLU argued, “In 2023, nearly 60 percent of the people convicted under Section 922(g)(1) were Black. As one court observed, as a result of this statute, ‘nearly a quarter of Black adults have been permanently stripped of the right to lawfully possess firearms.’”
Shilpi Agarwal, the legal director of the ACLU of Northern California stated, “By imposing a lifetime ban on possessing a gun on people who, like Mr. Duarte, were convicted of nonviolent offenses, the federal statute drives mass incarceration and disproportionately targets Black men who, due to systemic racism in the criminal legal system, are both more likely to have felony convictions and to be charged with gun possession.”
