Background
The Gun Control Act had long prohibited convicted felons from owning firearms. In 1996 the Act was amended to extend this prohibition to persons convicted of a "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence."
The question before the Court was the statutory meaning of this prohibition, and how far it extended: did it require a state to have a specific statute that prohibited misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence, under which a person charged with an Act violation was convicted ? Or did it only require that a person was convicted of a misdemeanor which in fact constituted "domestic violence," without regard to whether the misdemeanor statute specifically proscribed crimes of "domestic violence"?
Read more about this topic: United States V. Hayes
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