WASHINGTON
After reading in Monday’s New York Times story about actor Mel Gibson’s failure to have his gun rights restored, I asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at that afternoon’s press briefing about the administration’s take on restoring gun rights for offenders who have served their sentences.
The story interested me because over the years I’ve talked to federal offenders who turned their lives around and sought presidential pardons to erase their criminal records. Some have told me it was particularly important to them to be able to own a gun for personal protection.
It didn’t matter which state they lived in. even decades after they served their sentences, they could not legally keep a gun in their own home.
I want this to be clear: I believe in a prohibition on gun possession for those convicted of domestic violence, felony or misdemeanor — except there’s no statute of limitations, no end to the removal of a right many see as essential for their personal safety.
I’ll get to the White House response shortly, but first a little more on Gibson, who is a Trump supporter.
The president named Gibson and fellow actors Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight to serve as his “Special Ambassadors to Hollywood,” a honorific title as far as we know.
In so doing, Trump looked beyond Gibson’s checkered past in ways few politicians would dare.
The actor has had his demons.
In 2011, the “Lethal Weapon” star pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of battering his girlfriend. Gibson avoided jail time, but was sentenced to counseling, community service, probation and a $570 fine.
Gibson’s worst moment of his public life, however, occurred in July 2006 when he was arrested for drunk driving in Malibu. A drunken Gibson told the arresting officer, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson also asked the cop, “Are you a Jew?”
Of course, Gibson issued a public apology in short order. “I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable,” he offered. “I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone I may have offended.”
His agent spoke of the film star’s apparent issues with alcohol. Gibson pleaded no contest and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Many in Hollywood looked past his awful words, others never will.
It’s the misdemeanor domestic violence charge — not the taped antisemitic arrest rant — that prevents Gibson, or anyone else with such a record, from qualifying for legal gun ownership.
Gisbon is not alone. “A lot of people don’t know they signed their rights away for the rest of their life” when they cut a plea deal, Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, told me. They know they cut a deal that spares them from jail, but probably are not aware of the lifetime consequence of being on the FBI no-gun list. Others in that group include Americans who have been dishonorably discharged from the military, renounced their citizenship or have been adjudicated as “mental defective.”
“Once you’re on this list,” Johnston noted, “you can never get a gun.”
The White House response to my briefing-room question was, “The President has always been a staunch advocate for the gun rights of Americans. As for this particular issue, we have no new policy to announce at this time.”
But Thursday the Trump Department of Justice submitted language in the Federal Register that would allow Gibson and others to petition the Attorney General to restore their right to bear arms.
A door has opened for many Americans who committed crimes years ago.
In his first term, Trump out-flanked the left by reforming federal mandatory minimum sentences while steering conservatives into the “Right on Crime” fold. It was part of Trump’s laudable push to give offenders who turned their lives around a second chance.
As it is, the Trump administration plans to review applications from former offenders — but this story came to light because an attorney with the Department of Justice didn’t believe Gibson’s clean record for more than a decade mattered. I think it would make more sense to establish a ceiling on the gun-ownership prohibition to, say, 10 years, and only for those who do not re-offend.
“Making it easier for domestic abusers and violent criminals to rearm is a death sentence waiting happen,” Moms Demand Action executive director Angela Ferrell-Zabala responded in a statement.
I don’t think so. The reason for the prohibition is to stop abusers from terrorizing and harming others. I don’t think such men (or women) are going to wait 10 years so they legally can own a gun to abuse others.
Offenders who have turned their lives around and followed the law for years should have the same rights as everyone else.
Contact Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.
