Bad check nixes concealed weapons license

August 5, 2019

NSF Staff

A state appeals court Monday ruled that a man convicted on a felony bad-check charge four decades ago cannot have a concealed-weapons license. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal said the man, identified only by the initials J.J. III, was convicted of the charge in 1979 when he was in his early 20s. In 2016, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued a concealed-weapons license to the man but revoked it a year later after discovering the felony conviction. The man then appealed the revocation. “Despite having a clean record for nearly four decades after his conviction, the appellant (J.J. III) is statutorily ineligible to possess a firearm or hold a concealed weapon license in the state of Florida,” said the ruling by appeals-court judges Scott Makar, Thomas Winokur and M. Kemmerly Thomas. “We are unable to accord appellant relief, his sole remedy being with the Office of Executive Clemency, which is empowered to restore an applicant’s authority to own, possess, or use firearms.” The two-page ruling did not provide details about the bad-check conviction.