New to this forum, and thought it would be a great place to get some advice. I have wanted to get a Firearms Id and Purchase Permit for some time, and just recently decided to go ahead and do so. I decided to consult an attorney because I was once in a mental hospital (see below), and because I have seen a psychologist on and off for a few years (I have chronic pain and some physical problems that don't affect my use of firearms but I like talking to someone about it). Anyway, I contacted a lawyer and he asked about my background. He asked if I was ever arrested and I said yes, twice...once at 18 for shoplifting (dropped a week later) and once 8 years ago when I was in a car that was pulled over, they found drug paraphanalia and charged both of us, but those charges were eventually dropped too when the driving admitted that it was his. BOTTOM LINE: The lawyer seemed more interested in getting the arrests expunged and said he will do that plus deal with the mental health stuff for $1800. I need to know if that is reasonable...(2) if it is even necissary, as I was under the impression that being arrested but not convicted would not be held against me. And (3) If I have a chance in hell of even getting the permit to begin with. I am on disability right now, so $1800 is no small amount, but I really do want to do this if it is possible, but I have a feeling I have NO shot and would be wasting the money. Any help would be great. Below is anything that could be used against me:

 

Arrested for shoplifint at 18, charges dropped

 

Arrested for drug paraphanalia at 24, charges dropped (I am 33 now)

 

Born with congenital birth defect-Have some chronic pain and walk with slight limpT

 

Take pain medication for that condition (Take it, of course, as prescribed, no overuse/abuse)

 

Once in mental hospital---Long story i'll try and make it short as possible: My best friend thought it would be funny to give his little sister's best friend my # since she had a crush on me. The kid was like 15 and kept calling me every day. One day she called at 6am complaining about her life and after babling for 10 minutes says she is a loser for being single and being tired and annoyed I said "Well I have been single for a year so I guess I should just kill myself!" and I hung up the phone. Twenty minutes later I have two police at my door taking me to the hospital psych ward. They told me I could sign in otherwise they would commit me, so I signed in, but then (thinking i was so smooth), I tried to sign out right away. Since they had not evaluated me yet, they denied me the ability to leave, and sent me to St. Claires. After evaluation (And getting beat up by a guy who thought I was conspiring with Bill Gates and Satan to put chips in his brain--Dead serious true story) They said I was fine and let me go.

 

See psychologist for issues related to pain and other medical issues (I had 20+ surgeries growing up)

Sounds worthwhile to me. If anything, expungement of your arrests will serve you well for the rest of your life. It also sounds like your sucess in getting your FID will take quite some time, given all of the work your attorney has to go through..

I wish you the best of luck on on everything !!

My wife's firm charges about $1100 for expungements. So, $1800 isn't too bad. You can do expungements yourself pro se, takes about 6 months. Well, it will take about 6 months with the attorney, too. The mental health part will be a larger issue to overcome.

You can expunge arrests? I've never heard of this. What what that do? Sounds like the guy was never convicted and never even went to trial for anything.

An expungement is the removal and isolation of all records on file within any court,

detention or correctional facility, law enforcement, criminal justice agency or juvenile justice

agency concerning a person's apprehension, arrest, detention, trial or disposition of an

offense within the criminal or juvenile justice system.

You can expunge arrests? I've never heard of this. What what that do? Sounds like the guy was never convicted and never even went to trial for anything.

 

Just to clarify, this is correct. In both instances I was simply with people who were (unknown to me) in the wrong. Thankfully, in both cases, this was quickly realized and the charges were dropped.

I would make sure record is expunged consult lawyer and check out your record before you sign anything.

The New Jersey Second amendment society has four excellent firearms attorneys listed in the legal section

 

You may want to try one of them.

 

Http://nj2as.com

 

It was my understanding that arrests do not "count" against you, only *convictions*. People occasionally get arrested for crimes that they did not commit just because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and/or look like someone/have the same car as someone who *did* commit a crime.

 

On the mental health issue - you were never diagnosed with a mental disorder and you were not committed against your will, correct? You were evaluated but not admitted/committed, correct?

A good friend of mine was recently declined a on his P2P apps due to an arrest for assault back in 1969 even though he was previously approved for several permits. No one seems to know why and/or can explain why something so old would now turn up. Anyway he contacted the court, got a notarized document from them showing that he was found not guilty which he supplied to his local PD Dept. Few weeks later he got his P2P’s

Try doing a background check on yourself thru sagem morpho and the state police just out of curiosity.

 

I'd do as suggested above and go thru a lawyer on the nj2as website

"Twenty minutes later I have two police at my door taking me to the hospital psych ward. They told me I could sign in otherwise they would commit me"

 

The police cannot commit you to any type of hospital. They do not take you to a hospital "psych ward". This needs a little clearing up.

Danno--Sorry, bad choice of words. They took me to the emergency room and had me wait in a little until the doc on call came in and told me "you can sign yourself in to our psych floor otherwise I will have to put you in there because I don't know if you are a threat to yourself". Looking back, I am guessing that the guy was busy and just trying to pawn me off, and that if I had refused to sign anything that he would have probably just let me go. Stupid on my part, but I was young and scared of being committed to some psych place. The irony of the whole thing was that at that point in my life I was happier than at any other point in my life.

The New Jersey Second amendment society has four excellent firearms attorneys listed in the legal section

 

You may want to try one of them.

 

Http://nj2as.com

 

Maybe I am just blind, but I can't find any legal section or listing of four attorneys. Could you direct me where on the site they are listed?