Under Federal law, if someone is subject to a Protection From Abuse Order issued by any state court AND after being served with the Order is found to have on him or her any firearm, that is a violation of Federal Law and subject to a Five year Federal Prison Term (Minimum sentence is five years). Thus add on a STATE BAN, that would just add time to such condition.
Please note one of the first federal cases involved a hunter who was caught with two turkeys in Louisiana's Spring Turkey Season. You were only suppose to have one and he was caught with two. The Hunter was caught with two, and was going to be arrested for that crime (and get a fine for it, no jail time) when the arresting officer found out he was subject to a PFA. The Federal Prosecutor took on the case and prosecuted the Defendant. The Defendant's wife showed up at the trial to testify she was NOT afraid of the Defendant having a shotgun to go turkey hunting, but the trial judge (and on appeal the Appellant Court) said that did not matter, she had obtained a PFA and it was still in force when the Defendant was caught with a firearm and thus he spent five years in a Federal Penitentiary.
My objection to any STATE Law is it would be a duplicate of Federal Law and unless the law clearly states any time served under the Federal Law counts under the State law, you can have a person serving 10 or more years for merely touching a firearm. That is excessive, given that present Federal Sentence is a hard five years.
If the Federal Sentence could be suspended or adjusted to something less then five years, I have less objection to it, but five years for merely touching a firearm is plain excessive. The Judge should have some discretion as to the length of sentences is such cases, including suspending the sentence in cases where it is clear no threat was meant to anyone. Present Federal Law does NOT give Judges that discretion. Someone who has a PFA against him or her and merely touch a firearm faces a mandatory five year punishment in federal prison. Why does the state need to add on to that law???
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