By Old Town Lawyers
Civil rights restored
The first step is you have to have your civil rights restored. That means your right to vote, right to hold a public office, right to serve on a jury. The other rights that you lose when you're convicted of a felony. To get your rights restored, your civil rights restored, you have to file an application with the governor's office. Once that is approved, you can file your petition for restoration of gun rights with the circuit court where you live, and the circuit court looks over your petition and they have discretion to restore your rights or not restore your rights. It's really fact specific based on the conviction for which you lost your gun rights and the person and everything he or she has done since then to try to get them restored. The most important thing to show is that it's not a risk. You're not a danger to having your rights restored.
Nonviolent conviction
Let's say you have a conviction that's 10, 15, 20 years old. It's a nonviolent conviction. You've never been in trouble since then and your employed law abiding member of society and that sense, your chances are really, really high. If your conviction though, involved a firearm, even if it's been a long time, even if you have everything else is going well for you, you're employed, you haven't been in trouble in a really long time, the judge still might not grant it because of the nature of the underlying charge. When you're presenting this case to the court, it's important to really show the person the humanity in the person that's requesting the restoration of rights, and I think it's oftentimes important to show why. I've had people who they have firearms service weapons that are family heirlooms. I think it's important to go in and say, this is why this person wants these rights restored.
Big hunting ground
Also, Virginia's a big hunting ground. I've heard a lot of testimony about people testifying that they were raised to hunt, they hunted with their father. It's something they want to pass on to their children. When I present these cases, I like to paint the picture of my client, where he was when he got the offense, what the offense involved, and what he has done since then, and really give the judge an idea of why he wants his gun rights restored and let him know this is not somebody who's going to be a danger. So you have to look at the facts, all the facts and circumstances in its totality and present the right picture to the court in order to get these cases approved.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymVGi-2SdjI
Credit: Rebecca Wade, ESQ Old Town Lawyers
Also, read how insurance for gun owners is really starting to spread amongst the liberal bastions?