Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns I was kicked out of the USAF in 1979 for smoking dope...

Don't give up.

I believe recent court decisions have upheld the rights of formerly convicted felons in some cases to participate in the 2nd amendment guarantees. Perhaps it may be easier now if you cite these decisions.

It might be easier to get your type of discharge changed. Applying and working toward a General discharge might open up doors.
Other than that: AZ, VT, WY, AK are places that don't require permits to carry concealed.

I hate to sound cynical, but I don't think the political or cultural climate regarding MJ use is going to have any effect on a technical finding the military used to classify your discharge. I wouldn't spend a dime on an attorney that hadn't successfully done it previously for someone else.

Secondly, everyone makes mistakes. There are very few people walking around that don't have some undisclosed criminal behavior in their past that wouldn't pop out with just a few questions on a polygraph; they just never got caught and have never been hooked up and asked relevant questions.

As is so often the case with all of us, the act itself can be forgiven and forgotten but the consequences of our actions just doesn't go away.

There is no change in climate. You still can't smoke dope in the military, you'd still get something less than an honorable discharge. Applying today's civilian attitudes to the military of 1979 (or 2015) is not a valid argument.

79 is before my time. I went into the Navy in 84, and drugs were a no-no then. I was told the crack down started when a Lt and Ensign destroyed a half dozen planes on the Nimitz's flight deck. Pilot/Nav and 90% of the deck crew tested positive for THC. I think that was around 81 or so.

Yes! a life sentence seems appropriate.

If he wanted to be illegal he would have just carried the damn thing and fug the state law.

Why not just ask the President for interdiction?

The champion of the war against the war on drugs thinks your getting the shaft, so maybe he can author a letter on your behalf?

Just don't tell Øbama why your discharge should be changed...










(only the center sentence was sarcasm)

It's something that he should have tried to change WAY back when.

Regardless, as you see, this is part of the price to signing your life over to Uncle Sam and why many aren't cut out for it.

You're bitching is akin to people that buy a house next to an airport then complain about the noise.

Everyone, including the OP, knew the price going in. He signed the dotted line. If you don't like know that a bad discharge will follow you around for life either A) Don't [bleep] up whilst in the military or B) Don't join

I didn't they drafted me. laugh

No problem here with what the USAF did at all.

It does seem excessive to lose 2nd amendment's rights for life, for doing what is now legal in several states.

Edit:
I also assume that law was not on the books when he smoked that dope.
Ex Post Facto, if so his offence should not apply.

He didn't lose his 2nd Amendment rights, just his ability to get a CCW permit.

Still a life sentenced for doing what is legal in other states.

Punishment above and beyond.

What law are you talking about? The CHP law in NC? It's identical to most CHP laws in every other state. NC was a "no issue" concealed carry state prior to 1995; i.e., you could not get a permit to carry in the state at all.

Even if it was not on the books at the time, it does not make it an Ex Post Facto law. Such a law makes something illegal that was legal at the time, and enforcement retroactive. What the OP did (doing drugs while in the armed forces) was illegal then, and it is still illegal. The penalty is still the same in the military. The provision for carry has actually gotten LESS restrictive in NC (going from no issue to shall issue) over time, but the restriction on the level of discharge from military service that applies has not changed at all.

Exactly. Until/unless the OP's state goes Constitutional Carry, or the entire U.S. goes Constitutional Carry, the permit is subject to the statutes governing it, and in almost every state that issues a permit his level of discharge from military service is a bar to a CHP. He can still own firearms, and he can still bear firearms (openly, in the course of target or recreational shooting, or hunting, etc.). He just can't lawfully carry a concealed firearm.

My mistake, still IMHO excessive, heavy handed laws from a to often draconian oppressive gooberment.

See if you congressman can help you.

You mean the one that governs how people who are serving (in his case - VOLUNTEERED) in the military and who are the nation's line of defense, in whose hands are trusted the lives of many, are barred from doing drugs? Laws like that one?

He hasn't had a problem with the discharge in 36 years and only now cares when a law that went into effect that gave most people in his state the privilege to carry concealed (a privilege that did not exist in that state prior) impacts him because of his previous illegal activities.

The CHP law won't change unless/until it goes Constitutional Carry. Getting his service record changed (the only avenue left open to him after more than 15 years out from discharge) is damned near impossible - ESPECIALLY for something that still carries the same penalty or worse in the uniformed armed services today.

You didn't read what I already wrote did you?

So how is denying him the Right to "bear arms" not taking away at least part of his 2nd amendment rights?

We're just going in circles here.

He is not denied the right to bear arms. He can still carry openly in that state, and he can still bear arms while engaged in any other lawful activity. He is NOT permitted to carry concealed.

Therefore, he is NOT denied his Second Amendment rights.

I read what you wrote, as have others. You still haven't caught on that you are and were in error.

I tend to agree that requiring a permit is dening a part of ones second amendment rights, but we lost that one decades ago. Why should one need a permit to exercise his 2nd amendment rights? He shouldn't, IMHO. I am no lawyer and did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.