My crime...

I have lost my 2nd amendment rights "forever" for Disturbing the Peace 415(1).

I lived with a girlfriend who was very jealous. One night she woke me from our bed by pulling me out of bed by my hair. She thought I was having an "internet affair" because she had posed as me and started talking to a girl in my instant messenger list. That girl's crime? Not knowing that I had a girlfriend. Big deal. We rarely spoke. I digress... my girlfriend tore me from our bed while yelling and screaming at me. She slapped and punched me in the face. I grabbed her wrists to protect myself. She threw things which broke a picture frame and the glass went all over. She grabbed the phone and I unplugged it and then plugged it back in. It was all very crazy. Never once did I hit or hurt her. The only force I used was to keep her from hitting me anymore by grabbing her wrists.

Cops came. (her mother called them from a few hundred miles away.)

No marks on her but the place looked a mess. They took me to jail.

I spent $2500 on bail and $2500 on an attorney.

Court proceedings took the better part of a year. They kept dragging it out and could never produce pictures even though they took quite a few that night (I was told by her later).

They offered a plea deal. Disturbing the Peace with three years probation and anger management classes. My attorney told me that I should take it because with the current climate of domestic violence if I went to trial and they found me guilty they would "throw the book" at me. So, in light of that and the fact that I didn't have another $2500 to pay my attorney to go to trial, I took the plea. NOBODY said anything about losing a constitutional right by accepting the plea. I figured the plea to a lesser charge would mean that you got punished as though that was your crime...... NOPE, I took the lesser charge for the record but took the punishment of the full DV charge, loss of rights forever. The three years probation was no problem since I wasn't really a trouble maker. The classes weren't fun but I'm a good boy and did what the court said.



Has this happened to you?

What is the Lautenberg Amendment?

The Lautenberg Amendment is a piece of legislation that is supposed to keep guns out of the hands of perpetrators of domestic violence. The problem is that this term, "Domestic Violence", is a net that catches all sorts of non violent non guilty people in itself and thus denies the rights of many. We are a less free less secure nation because of it.

Here's the Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautenberg_Amendment

Screwed by the Lautenberg Amendment...

I have decided to share my story.

I am a law abiding productive member of society. I am a family man.

I have been let down by our government. They, because of Senator Frank Lautenberg's not-very-well-thought-out amendment, have decided that I am a life not worth self protection. And, by extension of that, so are the lives of my wife and children.


I am looking to hear the voices of all the people that have truly been screwed by the Lautenberg Amendment. I am not looking to hear from the people that have truly hurt someone with violence and have had their rights taken away.