In the United States, convicted felons can’t have a firearm unless their rights have been restored. Whether this is a good thing in general or not is a topic for another time. For right now, let’s suffice it to say that they can’t have guns.

Yet felons keep getting guns.

For many of us, myself included, the only reason we see them doing so is that they want to continue committing crimes. The thing is, it seems that felons aren’t that different from you or me. Some just want a gun to defend themselves.

Reports said an Austintown man caught with a gun the day after Christmas told police he needed it because he has been shot 15 times.

Kadeem Gilmore, 31, was arraigned Monday in municipal court before Magistrate Anthony Sertick on charges of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Police pulled Gilmore over for excessive window tint. The car reportedly smelled of marijuana, though Gilmore denied having anything illegal in the car.

Shocking, I know. But the story gets better.

When police found a records check, they found Gilmore has a suspended license and searched the car before it was towed. Inside the center console, they found a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol in the center console.

Reports said Gilmore told police he needed the gun for protection because he has been shot 15 times.

Gilmore was quoted as telling police: “People carry guns when they have been shot and I’ve been shot 15 times.”

Now, Gilmore was convicted on a felony drug case back in 2007, so he can’t legally own a firearm. His gun rights are stripped and it’s unlikely he’ll get them back. Not after this.

Of course, this makes you wonder just what he’s been up to where he’s been shot 15 times. I can’t think of many places where law-abiding citizens get shot that much outside of serving in a warzone. Even then, such an extensive set of wounds is rare, so what has Gilmore been up to?

Somehow, I suspect Gilmore’s career choice has more to do with why he got shot so often than anything else. Just because it had been 13 years since his conviction, it doesn’t mean he ever left the drug gang.

But that’s mostly just speculation. In truth, it doesn’t really matter all that much.

Undoubtedly, the police are going to want to know where Gilmore got the first, which we all know wasn’t from a law-abiding gun dealer. They perform background checks. Most likely, he bought it from someone on the streets. It’s likely a stolen firearm which was then illegally sold to Gilmore. It’s also possible he purchased it from someone who was unaware of his criminal history, but that seems unlikely. We know where felons tend to get their guns and it’s not from sales with the law-abiding, as a general rule.

Still, if nothing else, this story should at least provide a bit of entertainment here at the end of the year.