Thousands of Oregonians have been purchasing guns this month. Only some need to petition the courts first.
Mark Susi, a 60-year-old Gresham man convicted in 2012 of three felonious sex crimes, is petitioning Multnomah County to allow him to own guns again. He’s got a court date set for Thursday morning and a judge will decide whether to allow it or not (see ORS 166.274).
Susi was convicted on two counts of sexual abuse in the second degree (see ORS 163.425) and one count of sodomy in the third degree (ORS 163.425), each felonies, which block him from owning guns without the court’s approval. The available details of his crimes are scant, but the definition of the charges he was convicted on indicate it had to do with a child (committing or causing “deviate sexual intercourse with another person under 16”) and penetration without consent.
Despite the three felony convictions, court records indicate he wasn’t sentenced to any more time locked up. He got three years of probation, had to do therapy and sex offender programs, and had restrictions on his access to children, the internet, and pornography:
In his petition, he lays out that he’s a family-man with three grown children and six grand children.
“I would very much like to shotgun hunt with my son and grandson,” he said. “I have always been a bird hunter and I would like to resume that hobby.”
In his final paragraph, he calls the felony sex crimes he committed against a child when he was 54 a “mistake in judgment”:
Over five years ago when I was 54, I made a mistake in judgment. I am 60 now and I paid a heavy price for that mistake, but now I wish to have my full rights restored.
A judge on Thursday will decide if that happens.
Eeww. Non-consensual penetration on a minor by a 54 year old man is an “error in judgment”??? Now you’re all grown up at the age of 60 and you want your guns back??? You brag that you’re a “family man” with 6 grandchildren??? This guy does make a good argument for gun rights. I wish I lived next door to him. (vomits in mouth)
He should call up the NRA to foot his legal bills. They oppose any restrictions to gun ownership, so unless they are hypocrites they ought to support his petition.
I don’t really see the relevance to guns. Most kidnapping/ sex crimes don’t seem to have anything to do with guns. Cut the guys manhood off, but do not make him a poster-child for the gun debate.
“Cut the guys manhood off”
But don’t you see, guido? They already have, by denying him his penis. I mean gun. It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes with how gun rights folks treat the two pretty much identically.
Its true that sex crimes and gun crimes are not always related, and that the worst perpetrators may often reflect different demographics. But the corresponding factors are undeniable; unscrupulous lack of morals, abuse of power, and mental instability. Remember, this guy didn’t make “a” mistake in judgement, he was convicted of THREE FELONY RAPES ON A MINOR. That’s just what he got caught for. Never even served time. Even if that’s unrelated to his conduct with guns, I think taking away his guns is a perfectly humane punishment for a heinously inhumane crime.