Probation
Can include the restriction from buying/owning/carrying a gun. It may not, but often does. Any dealer/pawnshop is smart to do a blanket "no deal" to anyone on probation just because they have no way of knowing the details of the probation, and they can vary widely.
It does not take a felony conviction to loose your gun rights, thanks to the law created by Lautenberg, and passed during the Clinton administration. That law (passed to keep guns from the hands of spousal abusers, so they said) was so broadly written that anyone with a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction (ever) loses their right to own a gun, or even use one as part of their job. This law does not exempt policemen or military in the course of their duties. Before this law, for a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction (guilty plea), one paid a fine, and life went on.
Not so anymore. The Clintons bragged how they put thousands of cops on the street, but this law took thousands off the street, because as a group police officers have a higher than average rate of marital problems, including divorce and domestic violence. What used to be a relatively minor charge, (remember, misdemeanor) now becomes a life changing event, especially if you are a cop.
Get in a argument with the wife? Cops called? Made up with the wife the next day? Pled guilty to misdemeanor charge, paid small fine to make it all go away? That used to be the usual manner of handling it. Do that now, and lose your gun rights, forever. And under the Lautenberg law, if you ever did that, you lose your rights, even if it was 40 years ago. And, if you were a cop, since you lost those rights, under that law, you can't even carry a gun on duty. A cop who can't carry a gun legally is off the streets, and permanently behind a desk, if he is able to keep his job at all.
Sure, the stated idea behind it was good and noble, to keep an abuser from legally having or getting a gun. But the way they did it screwed all of us. Be sure to remember that good gentleman from NJ, and all the other congressmen who passed it, in your prayers!
