As a convicted felon you have to wait 8 years in Florida to get your rights restored to carry a firearm. With society today a felony offender will reoffend within a three year time period. Other offenders that last the three years have usually turned their lives around and live by the law with jobs and families.

  This petition is to ask the state to grant the law to be changed to three years instead of the current 8 year waiting period. Any felon that has completed their sentence, with all fines paid, should be able to have the right to defend their families with a firearm, or go hunting on any open season with no restrictions or risks of breaking the law.

  Felons that have been rehabilitated live the same lives as anyone that has not committed a crime and their hands are tied if an intruder enters their homes, or attempts are made to take their lives. If a felon has lived three years trouble free, has held a job for those three years, and paid taxes to the state, they should be allowed to have their rights restored and continue to contribute to society and protect their families. A lot can happen in 8 years and society isn’t the the same as it was 20 years ago. The drugs and mentality of individuals are out of control and it’s not the reoffenders committing a lot of the crimes. It’s the drugged out, mentally unstable individuals that are taking people’s lives.