There are some people you kind of understand why they lost their gun rights. You may or may not agree with it, but you can also kind of get it. They broke a lot of laws before they committed a violent felony or something, so you look at it and recognize that they're probably not the best example to give of how the system is screwed up.

But a Washington state man is trying to get his gun rights back.

Wallace Elby Buck, a 62-year-old resident of Davenport, is set to appear in Lincoln County Superior Court to seek the restoration of his firearm rights, which were revoked nearly 20 years ago.

Buck was convicted on January 18, 2008, of nine counts of second-degree unlawful possession of firearms. The conviction stemmed from his unlawful possession of multiple firearms, including a Marlin 45 Auto Rifle, a Pardner model SB1 410 Gauge 3’ Full, a Savage model 11oe 20-60, a Marlin .22 Model CC550, a Mossberg 590 12 Gauge, two AK-47s, another AK, and a Jennings J22 .22 Pistol.

Court records indicate that Buck was found not guilty of a second-degree unlawful possession charge involving a 9mm MFG Germany with a magazine.

Testimony from Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Manke on January 3, 2008, revealed a report of stolen firearms from Buck’s residence on Forest Road. According to court documents, Deputy Manke interviewed Buck, who was asked if he had recorded the serial numbers of the two firearms taken from his home. Buck responded, “Of the whole page of firearms serial numbers I have written down, the AR-15 and Tech-9 are the only two I have not recorded.”

So it seems that Buck was the victim of a theft and, for his troubles, he was arrested himself and charged with illegal gun possession. 

Second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm is a charge that gets leveled when someone is prohibited from owning a firearm, so apparently Buck was a prohibited person, though we don't know why he was prohibited. Since he was also prohibited before that, I fail to see why the report lists just this arrest as the reason he's prohibited.

After all, if he's prohibited from owning guns simply because he owned guns, then a lot of us are going to be in trouble. We don't know why he was prohibited, though, so it's possible they didn't and just didn't really know how to describe that in a way that actually makes sense.

Regardless, he's kept his nose clean since then, apparently, and now wants his gun rights back.

Yet it seems the reason this is important isn't because he somehow needs guns, but because of his wife. It appears that someone took a gun to pawn it so they could get gas money. When Buck's wife went to pay off the loan, they refused to give her the gun back because of his status as a felon. So she paid off her loan and can't get her property back because of who she's married to.

Which is a problem because no one should lose their rights simply because their spouse was convicted of something.

Further, if anyone keeps their nose clean that long, restoration of their rights should be automatic. They shouldn't have to go to court to fight to get them back. Our rights are our rights, and while I get the argument that people should be punished for their crimes, we shouldn't keep punishing them after their release and continue to do so for the rest of their lives unless the court decides otherwise.

It's insane.

Here's hoping Buck can at least get his wife's gun back, but it would be better if he could get his rights back.