In 1968, Jefferson Schrader got into a brawl in Annapolis with a gang member who he claimed had previously assaulted him. He was convicted of common law assault and battery, a misdemeanor, and served no jail time after paying a $100 fine.
More than 40 years later, Schrader is arguing that the decades-old Maryland conviction shouldn’t bar him from buying firearms.
He filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder and the FBI in federal court in D.C. in October 2010. Schrader, who now lives in Georgia, argued that there was no specific penalty for assault when he was convicted, so the federal law banning people convicted of state crimes carrying a potential sentence of two or more years in jail doesn’t apply.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer disagreed and dismissed the case in late December, ruling that the lack of a codified punishment means Schrader’s offense fit those terms. `
“Mr. Schrader does not argue, nor could he, that a Maryland State court judge could not have sentenced him, or another offender of the same common law crime, to more than two years in jail,” she wrote in her opinion.
Alan Gura, Schrader’s attorney, has filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Gura — who argued and won the high-profile gun-rights cases District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago before the U.S. Supreme Court — could not be reached for further comment.
Schrader learned that he couldn’t own firearms when a friend tried to buy him a shotgun as a gift in November 2008, according to court documents. The FBI told him in June 2009 that the transaction had been canceled when the National Instant Criminal Background Check system indicated he was banned from purchasing guns. Schrader was also told to get rid of any firearms he owned.
Collyer noted that law prohibiting people convicted of crimes that could garner a sentence of two years or more was adopted in 1968, and “no challenge to the definition has been raised successfully in the decades since.”
Maryland has now codified penalties for assault. First-degree assault is now a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison and second-degree assault is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars.
