{"id":192,"date":"2017-12-27T10:50:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T15:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=192"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:32:05","slug":"constructive-possession-florida-gun-crime-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/constructive-possession-florida-gun-crime-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Constructive Possession in Florida Gun Crime Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

The term \u201cgun possession\u201d may seem like a pretty straightforward one. Florida\u2019s Second District Court of Appeal recently explained<\/a>, however, that there are many ways in which a person may be considered to \u201cpossess\u201d a firearm. Even if the person isn\u2019t actually holding the gun, he or she may be found to have constructive possession of it if the person knows about the weapon and has the power to exercise control over it.The defendant was convicted of a felony in 2006 for trying to float a bad check. Some eight years later, she was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. She argued that the guns in her home actually belonged to her recently deceased husband. She said she was hard up for cash after her husband passed away in 2014, and she decided to sell his guns to make ends meet while waiting for a life insurance policy to come through.<\/p>\n

The defendant said she went with a friend to a pawn shop to sell the weapons. Although she gave the shop her fingerprints as part of the transaction, she said her friend handled the guns the entire time. A pawn shop employee working at the time could not remember the details of the transaction. The officer who arrested the defendant didn\u2019t personally observe the transaction. At trial, the court sided with the defendant, finding that prosecutors failed to prove she actually \u201cpossessed\u201d the weapons in the way the state legislature had in mind when it passed the law banning felons from having firearms. As a result, the court dismissed the charges against the defendant.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The term \u201cgun possession\u201d may seem like a pretty straightforward one. Florida\u2019s Second District Court of Appeal recently explained, however, that there are many ways in which a person may be considered to \u201cpossess\u201d a firearm. Even if the person isn\u2019t actually holding the gun, he or she may be found to have constructive possession […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weapons"],"yoast_head":"\nConstructive Possession in FL Gun Cases<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read how Florida courts use constructive possession in gun cases and what it means when a firearm is around your home or car.\" \/>\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\/constructive-possession-florida-gun-crime-cases\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" 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