princewally wrote:
This person was told by NICS that the deny makes him a prohibited person, all by itself. He's not allowed to possess a gun until the deny is lifted. Specifically, he was told that if his carry permit application doesn't get rejected, and he carried, he would be committing a felony.
The above advice is worth about the same as any given from "Some Lady at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department". It's bunk.
princewally wrote:
This person was told by NICS that the deny makes him a prohibited person, all by itself.
First of all, NICS does not talk to the little people. They only speak to the FFL calling in your purchase, and when they do, they don't give a reason. All they will even say to the FFL is Approved/Denied/Delayed for X days/Keep him there until officers arrive. So my money is on this person NOT being told ANYTHING by NICS. Now, having said that, some gun shop owners/reps have been known to interject a little of their own "Gandalf Wisdom" and opinion on matters of law and carry, and again, like Some Lady at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, I'm amazed at how many people take what they say for Gospel.
princewally wrote:
Specifically, he was told that if his carry permit application doesn't get rejected, and he carried, he would be committing a felony.
If his carry permit is NOT rejected, that means he is NOT a prohiited person. Does he beat his wife? Has he been convicted of a prohibiting crime in any court of law? Is there any such public record of the matter? That is what the sheriff checks when we are paying him the extorted $100 to excersize our rights! Thus, if he is NOT a prohibited person, he is commiting no crime carrying on a valid permit. If you can honestly answer all the questions on the yellow form, you are not in trouble. They are just screwing around with you because, well, they can.
What you are telling us is either Partially True, False, Incomplete, or Incorrectly Understood in the game of phone tag it took to receive this information from the NICS "dispatcher", to the gun shop employee, to your friend, to you, and then to us.
There is no law that prohibits a Lawful Alien from purchasing a gun after visiting family abroad. Unless, of course, he was out of the country for more than a year without telling DHS, or has broken another part of immigration law. In that case, he would no longer be a legal immigrant, as you initially state.
As Joel said in not-so-many and much more elegant words: this stinks to high heaven.
Something's afoot...
(Oh, and IANAL.)