{"id":286,"date":"2009-04-04T02:14:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T02:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monachuslex.com\/?p=286"},"modified":"2009-04-04T02:14:22","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T02:14:22","slug":"breaking-news-was-pittsburgh-gunman-ineligible-to-possess-firearms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News: Was Pittsburgh gunman ineligible to possess firearms?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-287\" title=\"Breaking_News\" src=\"https:\/\/monachuslex.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Breaking_News.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"241\" height=\"241\" \/>T<\/strong>oday in Pittsburgh, a severely disturbed individual named Richard Poplawski took the lives of three police officers.<\/p>\n<p>Almost immediately, the media reports have focused on the gunman\u2019s use of a \u201chigh powered\u201d rifle and his fear that the Obama Administration was going to take away his gun rights.<\/p>\n<p>But wait \u2026 the Pittsburgh Post Gazette\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/pg\/09094\/96062-100.stm\" target=\"_blank\">reports that Poplawski was given a dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corp<\/a>. If this is true, then his concerns about the Obama Administration\u2019s gun control plans were moot because he had already lost his right to purchase or possess firearms.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/18\/922.html\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Code Title 18 \u00a7 922(g)<\/a>\u00a0prohibits anyone with a dishonorable discharge from possessing or purchasing firearms.<\/p>\n<p>This reporter is attempting to verify if Poplawski was actually dishonorably discharged. There is often confusion between a dishonorable discharge and a discharge under less than honorable conditions. But the differences in terms of consequences is significant.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0dishonorable discharge is given only when a member of the military has committed an extremely serious offense which is the equivalent of a civilian felony and has been convicted of such at a court martial proceeding.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepittsburghchannel.com\/news\/19096134\/detail.html\" target=\"_blank\">WTAE Channel 4 Pittsburgh is also reporting that Poplawski was the subject of a protection from abuse order<\/a>. If true and the protective order is still in effect, then this too made him an illegible possessor since The Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 modified\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/18\/922.html\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Code Title 18 \u00a7 922(g)<\/a>\u00a0to also make it illegal to possess or purchase a firearm while subject to such a court order.<\/p>\n<p>While the anti-gun movement will use this horrible tragedy as yet another opportunity to push their radical agenda, a pattern is clearly emerging of an individual who was\u00a0not\u00a0a law-abiding gun owner. This is simply another example of a disturbed individual who cared little for the laws he was breaking or the lives of his fellow man.<\/p>\n<p>Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these brave men who gave their all for their community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today in Pittsburgh, a severely disturbed individual named Richard Poplawski took the lives of three police officers. Almost immediately, the media reports have focused on the gunman\u2019s use of a \u201chigh powered\u201d rifle and his fear that the Obama Administration &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/?p=286\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trends-in-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}