geterdun2

hey all. I have a question that I cant find on the web. Long story short, I was in Alleghany county, MD, and was camping. DNR found some marijuana on me, gave me a little citation and let me be. Court date is june 8th. The officer said theysee it alot outthere and I will probably be put on STET docket - (which means they arent convicting me, they put case on "backburner" and if after 1 year I dont get in any trouble, it gets classified as a not guilty). I have always wanted to buy my own pistol for hunting/targets, and I turn 21 july 30. but today I asked myself:Will this STET docket phohibit me from buying one? Its not a conviction, but because it is on backburner does it mean I cant til the year is over.You guys seem pretty knowledgable, so I thought I would give it a shot. thanks alot

bigcountry

One of the paperwork questions is, "are you currently under any sort of litegation for a felony". But possession is not exactly a felony. I would say you can get thru the paperwork on a small charge like that.

geterdun2

thanks big. yea i is only a misdem., i mean they only gave me a citation and let me continue camping. but a gun-store owner today told me that i couldnt because of the STET, but i didnt really understand his explanation (or beleive him in all honesty). i hope so b./c I really want a pistol, I have a small-fetish for them lol, especially unique ones. so hopefully your right. thanks buddy

bigbulls

No you can not legally purchase a firearm.


Question "E" reads..........
"Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana, or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other crontrolled substance?"

Now that there is a legal police/ court record of your illegal use of a controled substance youu're SOL.

bigcountry

Wow, that stinks. Sounds like you have to wait until this blows over.

Briman

What Bigbulls said....
Do whatever it takes to get that off your record or you'll never legally own a gun again. It might take several years and a sympathetic judge. I had a friend who had a felony drunk driving conviction (it was a car crash and a child was involved) and was able to petition a judge to get his rights reinstated so that he could go hunting again, but he had to wait about 7 years and keep a clean record.

geterdun2

but what i dont understand is that its not a felony charge. im not even convicted of it. its just on like a standby until a year passes. I thought even if you convicted of a misdeminour, it doesnt prohibit you from purchasing one. I thought only felonies did. plus I was even convicted of it. this sucks theen b/c i thought it had to be a felony, and I have been looking forward to this for a while lol. Im gonna call the state and ask but I really hope I can.

geterdun2

..also wanted to say that the STET converts to a "no guilty" in a year and in 3 years i can have it totally expunged from my record. Its just hard for me to understand beccuase it is a misd. thanks alot please add any thing else

geterdun2

one more thought, bigbulls said question E reads "are you addicted....blah bla" but if at the time I am not using marijuana, i can say "no" and not be lieing, you know what I mean. I dont know, im just trying to understand and I appreciate everyones help with this

Briman

Neither is 'domestic violence.'

Because of the incremental system of taking our rights away, you can lose your right to own a firearm forever if you get in a shouting match with your wife or girlfriend and someone calls the police- no physical conflict is even necessary to get you railroaded into pleading guilty to a misdeameanor so that you don't have to spend a weekend in jail for it. To make it worse, no judge is going to sympathize with a person labelled as a 'wife-beater' regardless of the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

I'm not a lawyer, but you should be ok, if you get a 'not guilty' verdict. As far as being a drug user, stay clean, give up the dope- its not one of those hobbies that's going to get you ahead in life and you have a lot of good life ahead of you. If you have the charge changed to a 'not guilty' I would think its the burden of the Feds toprove if you are a drug user or not.

I'm pretty much getting sick of our crap system where people lose rights over meaningless laws that don't do anything to protect anyone from anything. If things keep heading the way they are, everyone will be a criminal in one way or another and a person can be shipped off to a detention center at the whim of the government.

*steps off the soapbox*