ALASKA'S NEWSPAPER

Anchorage Daily News

Subscribe | manage subscription | E-Edition

29° 31° | 26°

forecast | statewide

Daylight : 9:26 AM - 4:06 PM

| Updated: 5:01 AM

Home | Alaska Newsreader | Obituaries | Archives

TV Listings | Movies | Music | Restaurants | Submit Event

enlarge

Daron Dean / Daily News file photo

Alaska Newsreader

ADN finds the news from all over Alaska and about Alaska from around the nation so you don't have to. Updated several times a day. (Some links may require registration.) To comment on an article, click on the headline. Compiled by Mark Dent; e-mail mdent@adn.com.

MORE ABOUT THE NEWSREADER

SEND LINKS AND SUGGESTIONS

E-MAIL NEWSLETTER | RSS FEED

Do rural Alaska felons need to be gunless for life?

Published: October 30th, 2009 09:09 AM
Last Modified: October 30th, 2009 11:24 AM

Link: Anchorage Press In rural Alaska, where carrying a gun can be a necessity for food and protection from wildlife, there's no way for reformed felons -- even nonviolent ones -- to get their guns back, the Press writes. The federal gun law could use an Alaska exception, says federal public defender Richard Curtner. "But people convicted of crimes don't have any lobby. There are all kinds of exceptions written into law for banks and for corporations, but when you've done something wrong in your past, there's no lobbyist for that," he says. Felons who have paid their debt can request reinstatement of their right to carry a gun, but the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives hasn't performed the required background checks for 17 years. The situation begs another question: Is any authority in rural Alaska checking felons to make sure they don't own a gun?

Story tools

Comments (0)