For the first time, a Missouri federal court has ruled that Missouri’s criminal expungement statute does restore a person’s right to possess a firearm.
The case is Daniels v. U.S. Department of Justice. The facts of the case were as follows.
In 2020, Plaintiff Timothy Daniels expunged a 1998 felony drug possession conviction from Johnson County, Missouri. Missouri’s expungement statute specifically states that an expungement under the statute returns a person back to the status he or she held before the conviction, as if the conviction had never taken place.
A year later, Daniels attempted to purchase a firearm. The background check returned “prohibitive information,” which turned out to be the old 1998 conviction that was supposed to have been expunged.
Daniels administratively appealed the finding through the necessary channels as required by the F.B.I. and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The F.B.I. denied Daniel’s appeal, however. In a letter he received from the F.B.I., Daniels was told the expungement he received in 2020 “did not completely remove the effects of the conviction in question.”
The F.B.I. did not recognize the legal effect of the expungement.
Daniels then filed suit in federal court in July 2022. Both the Plaintiff and the Defendants filed cross-motions for summary judgement.
The Court granted summary judgement in favor of Daniels. The Court decisively rejected the Defendant’s arguments that the “whole of Missouri law” imposed a a residual restriction on Daniel’s right to possess a firearm.
In essence, an expungement fully restores a person’s right to possess a firearm.
Kennett business owner Juan Toscano was especially pleased with the ruling.
“I’ve searched for cases like these ever since accusations were leveled at me during my mayoral campaign,” stated Toscano.
Toscano was awarded a full pardon and expungement on May 14, 2021 from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker following a cocaine possession charge.
“Hopefully, this case will educate people on the definition of expungement,” Toscano said.
“Expungement is different than pardon.”
“It clears and restores,” he added.
Toscano plans to run for Ward Four Councilman in Kennett in April 2024.
This is the first time that a federal court has addressed the question of whether an expungement under Missouri’s expungement statute restores a person’s firearms rights.