What Happens When Someone Is Denied Gun Based on Long-Ago Criminal Case, and the Underlying Court Records are Missing?
From Zundel v. City of Jamestown, handed down Thursday by the North Dakota Supreme Court (opinion by Justice Jerod Tufte):
… Thomas Zundel attempted to buy a firearm, but the purchase was denied when a background check using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) revealed a 1990 simple assault charge in Jamestown Municipal Court. NICS showed the charge was continued for a year and Zundel was ordered to participate in counseling. NICS failed to confirm a conviction. Zundel filed a voluntary appeal of the NICS denial with the FBI. The FBI determined the 1990 case was a “potential prohibitor” and told Zundel to contact the Jamestown Police Department to obtain the missing information on the charge within 88 days or the file could not be processed.
Zundel attempted to obtain records from the Stutsman County Clerk of Court and the Jamestown Municipal Clerk of Court, but both responded that they had no records relating to his arrest or conviction or any other records of a court case. He also requested records from the Jamestown Police Department, Jamestown City Attorney, North Dakota BCI, and FBI. None had any records beyond the criminal background check reflecting a 1990 arrest by the Jamestown Police Department for simple assault annotated as “CONTINUED FOR 1 YR PENDING COUNSELING OUTCOME.” Zundel explained to the FBI that his search for records had failed and requested a favorable adjudication.
The FBI denied the appeal, holding the absence of a final disposition meant the potentially prohibiting record could not be nullified.
The court refused to just close the assault case outright in a way that would restore Zundel’s rights:
Zundel … argues this Court should declare he was not convicted of domestic violence in relation to his November 1990 simple assa
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