JSandi
08-16-09, 20:35
Tennessee law lets thugs pack heat
A violent past doesn't necessarily prevent a Tennessean from getting a gun permit
Some might question the wisdom of allowing Carlos Antwan Fletcher to carry a loaded handgun in public. He has a lengthy criminal arrest history, including being involved in a violent attack that sent a Metro Police officer to the hospital, a separate aggravated assault charge and various drug and gun arrests.
Yet, the state has said it's OK for the 28-year-old Nashville resident to carry a gun. And, in fact, lawmakers expanded his rights this year to legally carry a gun into restaurants and parks.
Fletcher's past is not typical of the 237,000 Tennesseans who have obtained gun permits and renew them regularly. Most permit holders are law-abiding, a fact that politicians touted often when pushing for more rights this year.
But not touted, and often ignored, is a persistent group of Tennesseans with violent pasts who carry gun permits through loopholes, administrative mistakes and the realities of a court system where charges based on violent incidents can be reduced or eliminated in plea bargains.
The state Department of Correction, which runs the prison system, has about 500 people in its records of felons whose names appear to match those of gun permit holders. State law prohibits felons — people convicted of what are considered the state's most serious crimes — from holding a gun permit and legally carrying a handgun.
When The Tennessean showed these matches to the agency that handles and approves handgun permit applications, the state Department of Safety, it found that most of them have a legal reason to hold their permit.
Fletcher is one of them, despite his repeated run-ins with the law. Several felony charges over the years that would have disqualified him for a gun permit were either reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed.
The most serious offense was in January 2000, when Metro Police Officer William McKay was assaulted and knocked unconscious after a traffic stop in south Davidson County. The driver, Leslie Darnell Lewis, who has a lengthy arrest record for various violent and gun charges, tried to lose the officer on side roads off Harding Place near Interstate 24, according to the officer's account.
When McKay finally pulled Lewis over, the driver tried to flee and a fight broke out between the two, the report said.
Lewis hit the officer on the face and head, and yelled, "Help me get him," according to the police report. Fletcher, a passenger in the Cadillac, grabbed the officer's arm, while Lewis continued to hit him with a blunt object, the report said.
"You hit him with the gun," the report quoted one of the men as saying.
McKay fell unconscious.
Lewis fled on foot. Fletcher later was evasive with police about Lewis' identity, but said he saw the officer going for his gun and ran between the two to try to break up the fight. He later called 911.
Fletcher was initially accused of attempted criminal homicide, according to police reports, but that was reduced to felony aggravated assault. In the end, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and got a year of probation.
In 2004, he was again charged with aggravated assault. When his girlfriend refused to get back with him, he showed up outside her South Nashville home waving a handgun and threatening her, according to an affidavit. She watched as he jumped atop her car and kicked in the window, the affidavit said. Court records say the charge was dismissed. In a case dated 2004 but resolved in 2005, he was found guilty of vandalism, but it's unclear if the cases were related.
In 2007, when the Department of Safety flagged Fletcher and denied him a gun permit, he appealed to Davidson County General Sessions Court. His attorney, Jim Todd, said he didn't have any disqualifying convictions and the court overruled the state's findings.
In 2008, Fletcher again found himself before a judge on a raft of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from a May 2006 drug arrest by Metro Police. Fletcher had a loaded .357 Glock handgun in his front pocket, three cell phones and $3,165 cash when police busted him and two other men, according to the police report. The plea agreement in 2008 dropped all felony charges, and Fletcher pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapon possession charge, receiving a year of probation. Today he has a gun permit.
"Being charged with something and being convicted of something are two different things," Todd said. "I don't think it's discretionary. It's simply, do you have the convictions or not."
Todd said he could not assist the newspaper in reaching Fletcher. Phone calls to an address where Fletcher once lived went unreturned last week.
Politics, Inconsistencies
Cases like Fletcher's are troubling, but familiar to gun-control advocates.
"Tennessee's laws are among the weakest in the country to keep guns away from dangerous people," said Daniel Vice, senior attorney with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based group that monitors gun-control laws nationally.
He said in some states authorities have discretion to prevent dangerous or unstable people from getting guns, even if they have not committed a disqualifying crime.
Tennessee tried to give some discretion to permitting officials in the mid-1990s when local sheriffs were charged with determining who got a permit. Politics and inconsistencies from district to district led to some who deserved to get a permit being denied, according to John Harris, an attorney and a gun-rights advocate.
Harris' group, Tennessee Fire arms Association, has fought legislative battles for years to expand gun rights.
"We've got to have an objective standard that can almost be applied by a computer; otherwise it's a slippery slope," Harris said.
He sees a day when no carry permits will be required in Tennessee. He doesn't think the legislature would pass such a measure now, but five years out, the political climate could be different. Alaska and Vermont have no permitting requirements.
"The permit really is not that effective," Harris said. "The people who couldn't get the permit are going to carry anyway. It's not going to stop them. The people who want to carry and can legally carry the permit, it's just a roadblock that keeps some of them from qualifying because they can't afford it." A permit plus a required handgun safety class can cost around $250.
Communication Failures
The state's gun permit laws have been a hot-button issue in recent years. A permit allows one to legally carry a handgun in public.
In the past few years, Tennessee media outlets reported a number of cases in which convicted felons were getting or renewing gun permits. Reporters used permit records to make the identifications.
The accessibility of the records led some gun permit holders to bristle at the ability of reporters or anyone else to find out if they have a permit, and lawmakers earlier this year sought unsuccessfully to close handgun permit records from public scrutiny.
Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell, who would not grant an interview for this story, said through a spokesman that he welcomes the press attention, and that it has helped fix problems in the program.
"The commissioner thinks that's a good thing," Safety spokesman Mike Browning said. "The more scrutiny put on it the better because we're finding people that are disqualified to be a handgun permit holder."
A year ago, the Department of Safety was sending hundreds of letters to suspected felons to revoke or verify the legality of their permits.
But of the 500 permit holders with questionable histories identified by The Tennessean in recent weeks, the Department of Safety reviewed more than 300, and said that all but 14 had the permit legally.
The department has since revoked permits in six of the 14 cases, suspended six others and sent letters to the remaining two seeking more information about the disposition of their charges.
Still, the department acknowledges problems persist, with the biggest being communication breakdowns with courts or local police agencies.
A court is supposed to notify the department when a suspect with a felony or disqualifying misdemeanor, which includes domestic violence, stalking or a second DUI, comes before it so the department can suspend or revoke the permit.
Some courts are not diligent about sending the notification. Take the case of Russell Byron Cain.
He was arrested in Wilson County in April 2008 on charges of aggravated sexual battery and sexual exploitation of a minor, according to Safety, but no one notified the department of the arrest or subsequent conviction.
Cain, 62, is serving a 24-year prison term for the crime, according to Safety, but he continues to hold his permit behind bars. His case is one of 14 the department is acting on after The Tennessean's questions.
"We still have a problem with the courts not notifying us," Browning said. "If someone did something yesterday that disqualifies them, we want to know that as soon as possible."
The department also has had problems with local police agencies not telling them when permit holders are arrested, despite training to emphasize the importance of timely notification. That, too, leaves some dangerous offenders with permits when they should have been suspended.
"It's been cleaned up an awful lot," said commander Col. Mike Walker with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which oversees Safety's gun permitting unit. "As long as you have the human element involved, with so many different agencies involved there are going to be some problems."
A Lack Of Options
Two high-level law enforcement officials in Nashville said the law as it stands leaves them with few options in some of these extreme cases.
Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said cases such as Fletcher's are a concern.
"The circumstances of the cases you have brought to our attention can certainly lead one to reasonably question the judgment and character of these individuals, and whether they should have permits to carry guns in public, including bars and restaurants," Serpas said in a statement. "But again, the law is the law."
Davidson County District Attorney Torry Johnson said Fletcher's record didn't have a felony, and the court ruled it was not a disqualifying factor.
Johnson said the law would need to be changed to prevent someone who's in and out of the justice system but doesn't have a disqualifying offense, from getting a handgun permit.
"It's going to be up to the legislature if they want to tighten the restrictions that much more and, again, how do you do that?" he said.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090816/NEWS0201/908160369/Tennessee+law+lets+thugs+pack+heat
A violent past doesn't necessarily prevent a Tennessean from getting a gun permit
Some might question the wisdom of allowing Carlos Antwan Fletcher to carry a loaded handgun in public. He has a lengthy criminal arrest history, including being involved in a violent attack that sent a Metro Police officer to the hospital, a separate aggravated assault charge and various drug and gun arrests.
Yet, the state has said it's OK for the 28-year-old Nashville resident to carry a gun. And, in fact, lawmakers expanded his rights this year to legally carry a gun into restaurants and parks.
Fletcher's past is not typical of the 237,000 Tennesseans who have obtained gun permits and renew them regularly. Most permit holders are law-abiding, a fact that politicians touted often when pushing for more rights this year.
But not touted, and often ignored, is a persistent group of Tennesseans with violent pasts who carry gun permits through loopholes, administrative mistakes and the realities of a court system where charges based on violent incidents can be reduced or eliminated in plea bargains.
The state Department of Correction, which runs the prison system, has about 500 people in its records of felons whose names appear to match those of gun permit holders. State law prohibits felons — people convicted of what are considered the state's most serious crimes — from holding a gun permit and legally carrying a handgun.
When The Tennessean showed these matches to the agency that handles and approves handgun permit applications, the state Department of Safety, it found that most of them have a legal reason to hold their permit.
Fletcher is one of them, despite his repeated run-ins with the law. Several felony charges over the years that would have disqualified him for a gun permit were either reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed.
The most serious offense was in January 2000, when Metro Police Officer William McKay was assaulted and knocked unconscious after a traffic stop in south Davidson County. The driver, Leslie Darnell Lewis, who has a lengthy arrest record for various violent and gun charges, tried to lose the officer on side roads off Harding Place near Interstate 24, according to the officer's account.
When McKay finally pulled Lewis over, the driver tried to flee and a fight broke out between the two, the report said.
Lewis hit the officer on the face and head, and yelled, "Help me get him," according to the police report. Fletcher, a passenger in the Cadillac, grabbed the officer's arm, while Lewis continued to hit him with a blunt object, the report said.
"You hit him with the gun," the report quoted one of the men as saying.
McKay fell unconscious.
Lewis fled on foot. Fletcher later was evasive with police about Lewis' identity, but said he saw the officer going for his gun and ran between the two to try to break up the fight. He later called 911.
Fletcher was initially accused of attempted criminal homicide, according to police reports, but that was reduced to felony aggravated assault. In the end, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and got a year of probation.
In 2004, he was again charged with aggravated assault. When his girlfriend refused to get back with him, he showed up outside her South Nashville home waving a handgun and threatening her, according to an affidavit. She watched as he jumped atop her car and kicked in the window, the affidavit said. Court records say the charge was dismissed. In a case dated 2004 but resolved in 2005, he was found guilty of vandalism, but it's unclear if the cases were related.
In 2007, when the Department of Safety flagged Fletcher and denied him a gun permit, he appealed to Davidson County General Sessions Court. His attorney, Jim Todd, said he didn't have any disqualifying convictions and the court overruled the state's findings.
In 2008, Fletcher again found himself before a judge on a raft of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from a May 2006 drug arrest by Metro Police. Fletcher had a loaded .357 Glock handgun in his front pocket, three cell phones and $3,165 cash when police busted him and two other men, according to the police report. The plea agreement in 2008 dropped all felony charges, and Fletcher pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapon possession charge, receiving a year of probation. Today he has a gun permit.
"Being charged with something and being convicted of something are two different things," Todd said. "I don't think it's discretionary. It's simply, do you have the convictions or not."
Todd said he could not assist the newspaper in reaching Fletcher. Phone calls to an address where Fletcher once lived went unreturned last week.
Politics, Inconsistencies
Cases like Fletcher's are troubling, but familiar to gun-control advocates.
"Tennessee's laws are among the weakest in the country to keep guns away from dangerous people," said Daniel Vice, senior attorney with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based group that monitors gun-control laws nationally.
He said in some states authorities have discretion to prevent dangerous or unstable people from getting guns, even if they have not committed a disqualifying crime.
Tennessee tried to give some discretion to permitting officials in the mid-1990s when local sheriffs were charged with determining who got a permit. Politics and inconsistencies from district to district led to some who deserved to get a permit being denied, according to John Harris, an attorney and a gun-rights advocate.
Harris' group, Tennessee Fire arms Association, has fought legislative battles for years to expand gun rights.
"We've got to have an objective standard that can almost be applied by a computer; otherwise it's a slippery slope," Harris said.
He sees a day when no carry permits will be required in Tennessee. He doesn't think the legislature would pass such a measure now, but five years out, the political climate could be different. Alaska and Vermont have no permitting requirements.
"The permit really is not that effective," Harris said. "The people who couldn't get the permit are going to carry anyway. It's not going to stop them. The people who want to carry and can legally carry the permit, it's just a roadblock that keeps some of them from qualifying because they can't afford it." A permit plus a required handgun safety class can cost around $250.
Communication Failures
The state's gun permit laws have been a hot-button issue in recent years. A permit allows one to legally carry a handgun in public.
In the past few years, Tennessee media outlets reported a number of cases in which convicted felons were getting or renewing gun permits. Reporters used permit records to make the identifications.
The accessibility of the records led some gun permit holders to bristle at the ability of reporters or anyone else to find out if they have a permit, and lawmakers earlier this year sought unsuccessfully to close handgun permit records from public scrutiny.
Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell, who would not grant an interview for this story, said through a spokesman that he welcomes the press attention, and that it has helped fix problems in the program.
"The commissioner thinks that's a good thing," Safety spokesman Mike Browning said. "The more scrutiny put on it the better because we're finding people that are disqualified to be a handgun permit holder."
A year ago, the Department of Safety was sending hundreds of letters to suspected felons to revoke or verify the legality of their permits.
But of the 500 permit holders with questionable histories identified by The Tennessean in recent weeks, the Department of Safety reviewed more than 300, and said that all but 14 had the permit legally.
The department has since revoked permits in six of the 14 cases, suspended six others and sent letters to the remaining two seeking more information about the disposition of their charges.
Still, the department acknowledges problems persist, with the biggest being communication breakdowns with courts or local police agencies.
A court is supposed to notify the department when a suspect with a felony or disqualifying misdemeanor, which includes domestic violence, stalking or a second DUI, comes before it so the department can suspend or revoke the permit.
Some courts are not diligent about sending the notification. Take the case of Russell Byron Cain.
He was arrested in Wilson County in April 2008 on charges of aggravated sexual battery and sexual exploitation of a minor, according to Safety, but no one notified the department of the arrest or subsequent conviction.
Cain, 62, is serving a 24-year prison term for the crime, according to Safety, but he continues to hold his permit behind bars. His case is one of 14 the department is acting on after The Tennessean's questions.
"We still have a problem with the courts not notifying us," Browning said. "If someone did something yesterday that disqualifies them, we want to know that as soon as possible."
The department also has had problems with local police agencies not telling them when permit holders are arrested, despite training to emphasize the importance of timely notification. That, too, leaves some dangerous offenders with permits when they should have been suspended.
"It's been cleaned up an awful lot," said commander Col. Mike Walker with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which oversees Safety's gun permitting unit. "As long as you have the human element involved, with so many different agencies involved there are going to be some problems."
A Lack Of Options
Two high-level law enforcement officials in Nashville said the law as it stands leaves them with few options in some of these extreme cases.
Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said cases such as Fletcher's are a concern.
"The circumstances of the cases you have brought to our attention can certainly lead one to reasonably question the judgment and character of these individuals, and whether they should have permits to carry guns in public, including bars and restaurants," Serpas said in a statement. "But again, the law is the law."
Davidson County District Attorney Torry Johnson said Fletcher's record didn't have a felony, and the court ruled it was not a disqualifying factor.
Johnson said the law would need to be changed to prevent someone who's in and out of the justice system but doesn't have a disqualifying offense, from getting a handgun permit.
"It's going to be up to the legislature if they want to tighten the restrictions that much more and, again, how do you do that?" he said.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090816/NEWS0201/908160369/Tennessee+law+lets+thugs+pack+heat