If you are arrested and charged with a felony, can you be in possession of a firearm or ammunition after you bond out?

“There is no prohibition against the possession of a firearm or ammunition unless a person has been convicted of certain felony offenses,” Cynthia Killingsworth, first assistant district attorney for the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office, said in a statement forwarded to The Informer.

“The law does, however, provide a cleansing period which states that after 10 years has passed from the completion of a sentence or service of parole, the statute is no longer applicable.”

Under Louisiana Revised Statute 14:95.1, the right to possess a firearm is denied to people who’ve been convicted of robbery, burglary, felony weapons violations, bomb making, felony drug crimes, sex offenses or any “crime of violence.”

R.S. 14:2 says the term “crime of violence” refers to “an offense that has, as an element, the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force … and that, by its very nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force … may be used in the course of committing the offense or an offense that involves the possession or use of a dangerous weapon.”

Among the crimes considered violent:

• Solicitation for murder.
• First- and second-degree murder.
• Manslaughter.
• Aggravated and second-degree battery.
• Aggravated assault.
• Aggravated or first-degree rape.
• Intentional exposure to the AIDS virus.
• Kidnapping.
• Aggravated arson.
• Aggravated property damage.
• Purse snatching.
• Extortion.
• Carjacking.
• Terrorism.
• Aggravated assault on a peace officer.
• Disarming of a peace officer.
• Stalking.
• Battery of a police officer.
• Human trafficking.
• Home invasion.
• Domestic abuse aggravated assault.
• Vehicular homicide, when the driver’s blood alcohol level “exceeds 0.20 percent.”

Additionally, state law withholds the right to possess a firearm from those convicted of attempting to commit any of the above crimes, along with those who committed equivalent crimes in another state or country.

“Sex offense,” as defined in the law, includes child trafficking, crime against nature, felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile, indecent behavior with juveniles, child pornography, molestation, computer-aided solicitation of a minor, video voyeurism and rape.

For more information, visit www.legis.la.gov.