Source: https://www.amostyndall.com/just-get-my-guns-back/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 16:31:21+00:00

Document:
Our client is charged with assault, communicating threats, and injury to personal property after a confrontation with her husband. Her husband prepared a civil petition for a Domestic Violence Protective Order pursuant to N.C.G.S. §50B and filed it while our client waited in jail to appear before a District Court Judge on the criminal charges. In the petition, the husband alleges that our client assaulted and threatened to shoot him with the revolver she keeps under her pillow.
The Fourth Circuit in Vinson applied the “categorical approach” to determine whether a North Carolina assault conviction constitutes a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” as defined by 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(33)(A). 805 F.3d at 123. When using the categorical approach, the Court considers only the fact of conviction and the elements of the offense, rather than the conduct supporting the conviction. Id. Applying this approach, the Vinson Court concluded none of the forms of the North Carolina assault offense require the level of intent–use or threatened use of force–necessary to qualify as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” because the intent necessary for a conviction under North Carolina’s assault statute can be established through culpable negligence. Id. at 125; See State v. Jones, 353 N.C. 159, 538 S.E.2d 917,923 (2000). As a result, assaults under North Carolina law do not qualify “categorically” as “misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence” under federal law. Vinson, 805 F.3d at 126.
The question for our purposes is whether this provision applies to criminal judgments as well as formal domestic violence protective orders. The Fourth Circuit in United States v. Larson, 502 Fed. Appx. 336 (2013) upheld a U.S. District Court’s conclusion that 18 U.S.C. §922(8) can apply to criminal judgments that restrain people from harassing, threatening, or committing acts of violence against someone from a domestic relationship.
The government prosecuted Mr. Larson for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in violation of 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(8). Larson, 843 F.Supp.2d 641 (2012), affirmed by 502 Fed. Appx. 336 (2013). Mr. Larson was accused of assault against a family member. In addition to the criminal charge, a civil domestic violence protective complaint was filed, but allowed to lapse. After Mr. Larson was convicted, the state court imposed a suspended sentence for two years that prohibited “violent, threatening, or abusive contact” with the family member. Id.
So, our client would violate the federal statute by possessing a firearm during the period of her suspended sentence. She is subject to a court order entered after she had notice and the opportunity to participate in the hearing. The judgment prohibits her from threatening, assaulting or harassing her husband. Of course, the prohibition would be limited to the period of the suspended sentence. Id. at 646.

References: §50
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