{"id":186,"date":"2017-12-13T17:01:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T22:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=186"},"modified":"2026-01-09T04:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:03:12","slug":"florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Felon Gets Federal Time for Sunshine State Gun Possession"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>State and federal criminal laws often overlap and intertwine, particularly when it comes to drugs and guns. Law enforcement of every stripe takes these cases very seriously, but federal laws tend to be significantly harsher. In a recent Central Florida\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/appellate-courts\/ca11\/16-13691\/16-13691-2017-08-14.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gun crime case<\/a>, a federal district court upheld the U.S. government\u2019s right under the Constitution to impose those penalties, as long as the feds can prove some very minimal connection to interstate commerce.The defendant was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, a federal crime. He was eventually sentenced to five years in jail, a sentence that was increased because he had previously been convicted of drug trafficking. He later appealed the sentence, arguing that the feds didn\u2019t have the authority to charge him under the circumstances. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit disagreed.<\/p>\n<p>The Court explained that the federal law banning felons from having guns stems from the federal government\u2019s power under the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Commerce Clause. That clause directly authorizes the feds \u201cto regulate\u00a0<em>commerce<\/em>\u00a0with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.\u201d It has been read broadly to give the government wide enforcement authority over anything that has some connection to commerce between states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe statute is constitutional as applied so long as the government proves some minimal nexus to interstate commerce,\u201d the court explained. The government can establish that connection \u201cby demonstrating that the firearm traveled in interstate commerce through testimony that the firearm was manufactured in a different state.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Florida Felon Gets Federal Time for Sunshine State Gun Possession\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State and federal criminal laws often overlap and intertwine, particularly when it comes to drugs and guns. Law enforcement of every stripe takes these cases very seriously, but federal laws tend to be significantly harsher. In a recent Central Florida\u00a0gun crime case, a federal district court upheld the U.S. government\u2019s right under the Constitution to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drug-trafficking","category-weapons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida Gun Possession: Federal Prison Time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Felon with a gun in Florida? Read how federal time can apply and what it means if you face gun possession charges.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Florida Gun Possession: Federal Prison Time\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Felon with a gun in Florida? Read how federal time can apply and what it means if you face gun possession charges.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/florida-felon-gun-possession-sentence.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Florida Gun Possession: Federal Prison Time","description":"Felon with a gun in Florida? 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Read how federal time can apply and what it means if you face gun possession charges.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/florida-felon-gun-possession-sentence.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Felon Gets Federal Time for Sunshine State Gun Possession","datePublished":"2017-12-13T22:01:18+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T09:03:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/"},"wordCount":521,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/florida-felon-gun-possession-sentence.webp","articleSection":["Drug Trafficking","Weapons"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/","name":"Florida Gun Possession: Federal Prison Time","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-felon-gets-federal-time-sunshine-state-gun-possession\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/florida-felon-gun-possession-sentence.webp","datePublished":"2017-12-13T22:01:18+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T09:03:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Felon with a gun in Florida? 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