I completely agree with RichB's and Ranger04's statements. If you have served the time, you should get your rights back. Once you get out of prison you should be able to defend yourself and your family if you have one.
If we are afraid of these people having guns, then why are they back out on the street? Overcrowding you say? You are right about that. The real problem here is that the justice system sucks because we have become too weak. Society has become too soft in regards to evil people by not putting them to death. We are putting people in prison who we are mad at (drug addicts, drug offenders and so forth) not people that we are afraid of such as violent people and child molesters. Murderers, persons that commit extreme acts of violence, and child molesters and child rapists should be put to death. People that use marijuana should not be imprisoned but fined, as long as they have not hurt anyone. I would rather we throw the real bad guys in prison than these dumb drug offenders. And trust me I am not advocating legalizing pot or any other illicit drug, just stop filling the prisons with them and letting the violent and perverts go so they can hurt more people again.
Prisons need to go back to what they were intended to be; punishment and not entertainment. Prisoners should be in solitary confinement and in 10foot by 10foot cells with a cot and a hole in the ground to use the toilet with. Solitary confinement prevents riots, conspiring to escape, and prisoners from committing more crimes against each other while in prison. No TV, No video games, No weight lifting, and No eating like kings. These reforms would free up more money to build bigger prisons if they are at all needed when all reforms are put in place.
Also today a felony can be anything. Government keeps adding different misdeeds or offenses to the felony list. A felony should only be something SERIOUS not animal cruelty, not keying cars, not mailing prohibited items, not threatening something with mere words (terroristic threats) and should exclude most but not all non-violent crimes.
Sheesh people have been getting charged with terroristic threats because people have broken into their homes and they threatened those persons "If you ever come back to my property I'll kill you".
This is ridiculous! A woman who had a restraining order against her ex-husband and who threatened to call the law on him because he showed up at her door was charged with.......you guessed it; terroristic threats. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!
Terroristic threat charges have gotten out of hand! The whole idea behind this federal law was to fight terrorism not deal with domestic issues or punish people for threatening violence against someone that is violating the law in any way.
Also Senator Lautenberg's new introduced Senate Bill would allow for people on the "no fly list" or better known as the "Terrorist watch list" to be barred from purchasing firearms. There are over 1.2 million people on that list and people are getting on it who shouldn't be on it. See link:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/19/tsa.watch.list/index.htmlSenator Kennedy was also put on that list and it took them forever to get him off. Now if a Senator has a hard time getting off that list, it will not be easy as an average Joe to get off. Also the POTUS can put anyone he chooses on that list. And the list keeps growing at an alarming rate which means that people who are just ordinary American citizens are being put on that list. Many are law abiding and peaceful citizens who have done so much as spoken against government policies.