Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody just dropped a bombshell that’s got the gun rights world buzzing: she’s urging a federal appeals court to toss out a felon-in-possession conviction for a guy whose only crime was nonviolent. In a stunning brief filed in the 11th Circuit, Moody argues that nondangerous felons aren’t stripped of their Second Amendment protections just because they once ran afoul of the law. This isn’t some rogue state solicitor talking; it’s the top law enforcement official in a deep-red state flipping the script on decades of reflexive disarmament. For context, felon-in-possession laws have long been the low-hanging fruit for gun controllers—easy wins that disarm millions without due process, lumping petty thieves and tax evaders in with violent thugs. Moody’s move echoes the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision (2022), which demanded that gun restrictions be rooted in historical tradition, not modern feel-good policies. No Founding-era evidence supports blanket lifetime bans on non-dangerous folks, she contends, and Florida’s own laws already restore rights for many nonviolent offenders post-sentence.
What’s clever here is the strategic jujitsu: instead of defending a federal prohibition, Moody’s highlighting how Florida’s restoration process already weeds out the truly risky, making the feds’ one-size-fits-all ban not just unconstitutional but redundant. This guy’s crime? Something akin to fraud or theft—no guns, no victims harmed physically—which Moody says doesn’t justify eternal disarmament. It’s a direct shot at Range v. AG (the case at hand), where the 11th Circuit could set precedent forcing lower courts to scrutinize dangerousness before upholding bans. Pro-2A warriors like the Firearms Policy Coalition and GOA are hailing it as a crack in the dam; if it sticks, states might rush to formalize shall-issue rights restoration for the nonviolent, shrinking the 20+ million-lawful-gun-owners-who-can’t-own-guns underclass.
Implications for the 2A community? Massive. This could cascade nationally, pressuring red states to audit their rolls and blue states to defend their draconian bans in court. It reframes felons not as a monolith but as individuals—aligning with originalism’s focus on rights over categories. Gun owners should watch this like hawks: a win here bolsters challenges to other status-based restrictions (like age 21+ or domestic violence misdemeanors), while a loss hands ammo to Biden’s ATF push for universal prohibited persons expansion. Rally up, share this far and wide—Moody’s given us a blueprint to claw back rights one nondangerous soul at a time.
