You could be severely punished, for life.
That the punishment should fit the crime is a widely held axiom. If you lie on a tax return, you might expect to face certain consequences, such as fines and the repayment of back taxes, probably with interest, and perhaps even home confinement, or (in the extreme case) prison time. But you would not expect a lifetime restriction on your fundamental rights — such as the freedom to speak, to own property, or to enjoy your privacy. These punishments would be arbitrary and unjust given the nature of the crime.
Nor would you expect to permanently lose your right to own a firearm as punishment for a false statement to the IRS. But that is exactly what could happen, and what has happened, because of an unforgiving and unconstitutional federal law — passed as part of the Gun Control Act of 1968 — that automatically bans nearly all felons, even those convicted only of non-violent crimes, from ever possessing firearms for self-defense.
Losing the natural, constitutionally protected right to own a firearm is an unjust and arbitrary consequence for a non-violent crime of this nature. It is akin to losing one’s right to speak or the right against unreasonable search and seizure. And yet, unlike those other — hypothetical — unjust punishments, this lifetime ban on the possession of firearms is actually imposed by the federal government on tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of non-violent offenders.
Non-violent felons are not the only people subject to this “life sentence.” Conviction of any crime punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment automatically triggers the ban. And this lifetime ban applies regardless of whether any prison time was actually served. Under this sweeping standard, even some misdemeanors result in a lifetime loss of gun rights.
Worse, all of this depends — arbitrarily — on where an offense was committed. There are eight states in which a single DUI conviction triggers this permanent ban on gun ownership. In Oklahoma, adultery (which isn’t even a crime in some jurisdictions and is only a misdemeanor in others) will trigger this lifetime ban.
