Too many crimes are felonies.
At common law-- the legal system we inherited from England and used during the early Republic years in the USA-- a 'felony' was a capital offense.
Crime for which you could be executed, imprisoned for life, and have all your property confiscated by the government.
Today, a felony is pretty much anything.
Dumping trash on a dirt road, if there are any tires or old car batteries or paint among the trash (haz-mat).
Littering more than 500 lbs. anything, even if it's natural and biodegradable (like that 50-foot tall tree you recently cut down in your yard, and you chopped it into 3-foot lengths and loaded it up in your truck and dumped it in the woods behind that industrial park. Guess what? That tree weighed over 500 lbs. You committed felony trash dumping!)
Writing a bad check for your rent or house note and not making it good within 10 days is a felony.
H.S. football coach pats the butt of one of his 15 year old players, out on the field in front of 1000 witnesses, to congratulate that kid for a great play? That's felony "sexual battery upon a minor." It doesn't have do be done for the purpose of sexual gratification. A pat on the butt is sexual battery, regardless of intent. Done to a minor, that's a felony. And a sex offense, too. Welcome to the sex offender registry!
Unauthorized use of somebody's password on a computer system is a big felony. I think that one carries up to 15 years in prison. Even if you're just spying on your spouse to see if she's chatting with her old boyfriend on Facebook after she saw him again at the 20-year H.S. reunion.
Too many crimes are "felonies" to strip those people of their gun rights for life.
P.S. Ditto for dishonorable discharges from the military. Many of those are nonviolent crimes like petty theft or drug possession. Sometimes it's over something that would not be a crime at all for a civilian-- going AWOL, blatant refusal to obey orders, etc. Those people should get their rights restored later, after years of staying out of trouble.
At common law-- the legal system we inherited from England and used during the early Republic years in the USA-- a 'felony' was a capital offense.
Crime for which you could be executed, imprisoned for life, and have all your property confiscated by the government.
Today, a felony is pretty much anything.
Dumping trash on a dirt road, if there are any tires or old car batteries or paint among the trash (haz-mat).
Littering more than 500 lbs. anything, even if it's natural and biodegradable (like that 50-foot tall tree you recently cut down in your yard, and you chopped it into 3-foot lengths and loaded it up in your truck and dumped it in the woods behind that industrial park. Guess what? That tree weighed over 500 lbs. You committed felony trash dumping!)
Writing a bad check for your rent or house note and not making it good within 10 days is a felony.
H.S. football coach pats the butt of one of his 15 year old players, out on the field in front of 1000 witnesses, to congratulate that kid for a great play? That's felony "sexual battery upon a minor." It doesn't have do be done for the purpose of sexual gratification. A pat on the butt is sexual battery, regardless of intent. Done to a minor, that's a felony. And a sex offense, too. Welcome to the sex offender registry!
Unauthorized use of somebody's password on a computer system is a big felony. I think that one carries up to 15 years in prison. Even if you're just spying on your spouse to see if she's chatting with her old boyfriend on Facebook after she saw him again at the 20-year H.S. reunion.
Too many crimes are "felonies" to strip those people of their gun rights for life.
P.S. Ditto for dishonorable discharges from the military. Many of those are nonviolent crimes like petty theft or drug possession. Sometimes it's over something that would not be a crime at all for a civilian-- going AWOL, blatant refusal to obey orders, etc. Those people should get their rights restored later, after years of staying out of trouble.
