misdemeanor warrant = prohibited possession?

without going into great detail, i recently recieved notice that a warrant has been issued for my arrest for failure to pay fines. The details of my case are not important, none of it prohibits me from legal possession of a firearm (to my knoweldge).. Ive scrutinized the AZDPS website, handgunlaws pdfs, and several other websites listing AZ gun laws.. I do not see any text related to prohibited possessors that applies to my situation. In my eyes i am still able to legally carry my weapon, and i dont see how i would catch any kind of misconduct or other charge if i were to be stopped and arrested while carrying.. I need to be sure though, if my weapon is in danger of being confiscated, or my rights revoked due to this, i will not carry until i have the money to walk in and qaush this, or im arrested and released, which ever comes first. If you care to cast judgement, please withhold your comments. Any serious advice or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. I dont want to turn this tiny problem into a HUGE one

Talk to an attorney!

AFAIK you're not a prohibited possessor but I really, really wouldn't want to take chances on internet legal advice.

MrJPort said:

without going into great detail, i recently recieved notice that a warrant has been issued for my arrest for failure to pay fines. The details of my case are not important, none of it prohibits me from legal possession of a firearm (to my knoweldge).. Ive scrutinized the AZDPS website, handgunlaws pdfs, and several other websites listing AZ gun laws.. I do not see any text related to prohibited possessors that applies to my situation. In my eyes i am still able to legally carry my weapon, and i dont see how i would catch any kind of misconduct or other charge if i were to be stopped and arrested while carrying.. I need to be sure though, if my weapon is in danger of being confiscated, or my rights revoked due to this, i will not carry until i have the money to walk in and qaush this, or im arrested and released, which ever comes first. If you care to cast judgement, please withhold your comments. Any serious advice or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. I dont want to turn this tiny problem into a HUGE one

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ummm I'm not a lawyer, but if a warrant has been issued for your arrest, I'd give the guns to a relative for safe keeping and surrender yourself to the police or the court as soon as possible!

Let's not put the cart in front of the horse. maybe you won't loose your gun rights, but turning yourself in will be easier then getting your house raided or being tazes and pull out of your car over broken window shards, just sayin'

Believe me, i take everything with a grain of salt. Even what i read on the .gov websites. To relatively innexperienced people like myself, some of the language of the text can be difficult to interpret. I think ill take your advice and at least talk to an attorney. Ive never been wealthy so i guess thats always seemed like a luxury to me. It cant hurt to look into it though. If i had the money id go to the court tomorrow and pay the damn fine off, but since that isnt an option i just need to make sure that i make wise choices in the meantime. Thank you for your input.. I dont want to leave my gun home if i dont have to, but thats a better option than losing it for some reason im unaware of.

EMNofSeattle said:

ummm I'm not a lawyer, but if a warrant has been issued for your arrest, I'd give the guns to a relative for safe keeping and surrender yourself to the police or the court as soon as possible!

Let's not put the cart in front of the horse. maybe you won't loose your gun rights, but turning yourself in will be easier then getting your house raided or being tazes and pull out of your car over broken window shards, just sayin'

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I agree with you on the first part. Turning myself in would only require me to walk into the courthouse on their "walk in" day, sign in, and wait with the other to see the judge... Then im at his mercy. He could give me jail time for the fine, he could verbally warn me quash the warrant, he can basically do what he wants. If i walk in with a chunk of money that will make all the difference, but its my financial situation that stops me from doing that right away.


On the second part, they wont be raiding the house or any of that for a misdemeanor failure to pay warrant.. maybe they could, by law, but they wont.

MrJPort said:

without going into great detail, i recently recieved notice that a warrant has been issued for my arrest for failure to pay fines. The details of my case are not important, none of it prohibits me from legal possession of a firearm (to my knoweldge).. Ive scrutinized the AZDPS website, handgunlaws pdfs, and several other websites listing AZ gun laws.. I do not see any text related to prohibited possessors that applies to my situation. In my eyes i am still able to legally carry my weapon, and i dont see how i would catch any kind of misconduct or other charge if i were to be stopped and arrested while carrying.. I need to be sure though, if my weapon is in danger of being confiscated, or my rights revoked due to this, i will not carry until i have the money to walk in and qaush this, or im arrested and released, which ever comes first. If you care to cast judgement, please withhold your comments. Any serious advice or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. I dont want to turn this tiny problem into a HUGE one

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Without knowing the FTP (Failure to Pay) charges and other details, it is difficult to give any advice. I can't think of any cases, however, where an FTP warrant would rise to the occasion of makng you a Prohibited Possessor.

Should you be arrested while armed, however, you firearm would be booked in to safekeeping, and depending on the agency, you may have problems getting it back in a timely manner.

I second some of the advise you've already heard: put the gun in your safe, and go to court on the next open court day. if you know the fine amount, and have the cash, bring it. Talking to a lawyer will not get the warrant quashed, most likely.

AZkopper said:

Without knowing the FTP (Failure to Pay) charges and other details, it is difficult to give any advice. I can't think of any cases, however, where an FTP warrant would rise to the occasion of makng you a Prohibited Possessor.

Should you be arrested while armed, however, you firearm would be booked in to safekeeping, and depending on the agency, you may have problems getting it back in a timely manner.

I second some of the advise you've already heard: put the gun in your safe, and go to court on the next open court day. if you know the fine amount, and have the cash, bring it. Talking to a lawyer will not get the warrant quashed, most likely.

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I was actually hoping to hear a reply from you on this AZkopper, thank you. You basically confirmed that my understanding of the situation is pretty dead on. I really dont want to go through the experience of being arrested while armed, nor the hastle of bailing my gun out of jail. I can deal with being unarmed for a bit, but are you literally suggesting i put it in the safe? Im reluctant to sacrifice hasty home defense if i dont have to.

MrJPort said:

I was actually hoping to hear a reply from you on this AZkopper, thank you. You basically confirmed that my understanding of the situation is pretty dead on. I really dont want to go through the experience of being arrested while armed, nor the hastle of bailing my gun out of jail. I can deal with being unarmed for a bit, but are you literally suggesting i put it in the safe? Im reluctant to sacrifice hasty home defense if i dont have to.

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What I meant was, leave the gun and home and go to court. Alternately, go to court with a friend or family member, and leave the gun in the car. There is always the possibility that you will be taken in to custody at the court, and I wouldn't want your gun to be stuck in the lock box (and then confiscated when you can't get it by the end of the day).

MrJPort said:

a warrant has been issued for my arrest for failure to pay fines...
I do not see any text related to prohibited possessors that applies to my situation

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Look at the 4473 form, question 11d: "are you a fugitive from justice?"

I have seen letters from people at my city's PD (placed into the court file for various return of property hearings) arguing to the judge that someone's firearm should not be returned to him because he has unpaid parking tickets, making him a fugitive from justice... and since the person answered that question "no", he also lied on the return of property filing form & should be punished for that.

Yes, I'm serious.
Of course, my city's PD (as a matter of department policy) is extremely against armed citizens. I can understand being unhappy about armed criminals, but I'm talking otherwise law-abiding people who may not even have been charged with anything, let alone convicted.

So I'd say don't take your gun out in public, make sure it's locked in the safe when you leave home, and go sign up to talk to the judge. Take what money you can, take your paycheck stubs, tax return from last year, bank statement, whatever you can think of to show the judge why you can't pay the full fine. Ask for a reduced fine, or maybe some reasonable number of hours of community service.

MKEgal said:

Look at the 4473 form, question 11d: "are you a fugitive from justice?"

I have seen letters from people at my city's PD (placed into the court file for various return of property hearings) arguing to the judge that someone's firearm should not be returned to him because he has unpaid parking tickets, making him a fugitive from justice... and since the person answered that question "no", he also lied on the return of property filing form & should be punished for that.
SNIP.

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I actually thought of that before commenting first MKEgal, but I have a copy of the ATF's Reference Guide at home with full text of the GCA and I don't think it applies

this is here, 18 USC chapter 44 sec. 921

(15) The term "fugitive from justice" means any person who has fled
from any State to avoid prosecution for
a crime or to avoid giving testimony in
any criminal proceeding.

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Unless the OP's unpaid tickets are in another state, I don't see this matching, if he refused to pay Arizona fines and has remained inside the state of Arizona since the warrant was issued, the Federal law doesn't seem to apply IMO

now arizona might have such a law, but I wouldn't know since I don't live in AZ thus haven't researched their laws at any length.

18 USC 921 (15)
The term "fugitive from justice" means any person who has fled from any State to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal proceeding.

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I am aghast that the police & district/city attorneys (never mind the judges!) are so willfully ignorant. Or perhaps they're simply taking every advantage to take guns away from citizens?

I don't know if I kept records of those letters from the PD to judges (which they shouldn't have done in the first place), but those people would have wonderful grounds to sue the city. Their guns have probably been destroyed by now, but they could get compensation... at today's inflated rates.

First, I know that some of the unpaid parking tickets were in communities around Milwaukee.
Second, those aren't crimes, they're tickets.

AZkopper said:

Without knowing the FTP (Failure to Pay) charges and other details, it is difficult to give any advice. I can't think of any cases, however, where an FTP warrant would rise to the occasion of makng you a Prohibited Possessor.

Should you be arrested while armed, however, you firearm would be booked in to safekeeping, and depending on the agency, you may have problems getting it back in a timely manner.

I second some of the advise you've already heard: put the gun in your safe, and go to court on the next open court day. if you know the fine amount, and have the cash, bring it. Talking to a lawyer will not get the warrant quashed, most likely.

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It really does not matter from which staTe the advise comes from(iI'm from the commie state to the left of you). If you voluntarily go see the judge without much delay,and you bring with you any amount of money to pay towards the fine, your chances of going to jail diminish greatly. The jails are mostly full in large metro areas, and judges will work out payment plans in most cases of financial hardships. However if you get caught in public by a LEO and he has to "assist you " in making a decison, you will be going to jail for sure. If it is a Friday, you probably are not going to see a judge until Monday or Tuesday. If you have your gun on you when arrested, you will most certainly not see it for a very long time. No Lawyer is going to prevent you from finally having to surrender at some point, save your money and get this taken care of post haste.