Decades after shooting, former gang member sues to restore his gun rights

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An Iowa man convicted of gang-related offenses 32 years ago is suing the governor’s office over the loss of his right to own a gun.

Anthony Browne, 52, of Iowa City is suing Gov. Kim Reynolds and Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel in the U.S. District for the Southern n District of Iowa.

Browne claims his past convictions for a violent crime should not have resulted in the permanent loss of his right to keep and bear arms. He argues that his criminal sentences were fully discharged 25 years ago and that he has had his other rights as a citizen restored for the past 18 years.

According to Browne, he was convicted in 1991 of felony willful injury and criminal gang participation and sentenced to 10 years in prison on the first charge and five years in prison on the second, with the two terms to be served concurrently.

While serving his sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, Browne began taking correspondence courses through the University of Iowa. He completed his prison sentence in January 1998, and in July 2005, then-Gov. Tom Vilsack issued an executive order restoring all of Browne’s rights to citizenship except for his right to purchase, carry or possess a firearm. Later that same year, Browne was awarded a degree in computer science from the University of Iowa.

Since 2006, Browne says, he has been employed full time and has been a registered voter in Johnson County. From April 2019 to December 2021, Browne says, he held a high-level security clearance with the U.S. Department of Defense for his computer work at Collins Aerospace.

In his lawsuit, Browne states the governor has the power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons for all offenses and has the power to restore the right to keep and bear arms. He notes that in January 2011, then-Gov. Terry Branstad signed an executive order revoking Vilsack’s order, and in August 2020, Reynolds signed an order that restored some felons’ citizenship rights — neither of which had any impact on Browne’s loss of his right to own a firearm.

The lawsuit, filed two weeks ago in state court before being moved to federal court, seeks a declaratory ruling that would restore Browne’s right to possess firearms.

The county and the governor’s office have yet to file a response to the lawsuit. Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith and a spokesperson for the governor did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Court records indicate Browne’s convictions stem from a 1991 incident that involved Browne, Buddy Black and other members of the Black Gangster Disciples who had an altercation with a rival gang member, Dewey Lamp. Browne, Black and others followed Lamp home and when Black, who was carrying a handgun, approached a window of the house, a figure inside the home came into view. A member of the gang yelled “cap the bitch,” and Black fired the gun, with the bullet striking Dewey Lamp’s mother and puncturing her lung.

Browne was charged with aiding and abetting attempted murder, willful injury and criminal gang participation. He was acquitted on the aiding and abetting charge but was convicted of the other two offenses.

Browne told the Iowa Capital Dispatch he and his wife plan to move to Illinois where, by state law, he can petition to have his right to own a firearm restored. But the restoration of his rights there is predicated on the restoration of his rights in Iowa, the state in which his crimes were committed.

Browne said he wants his rights restored for the same reason anyone might: for hunting, to protect his home and to engage in recreational target shooting.

“My father in-law is a former Linn County sheriff,” he said. “They’ve all got AR-15s, guns everywhere. Every time I go to their home, they’ve got guns everywhere in their house. They go shooting out in rural Johnson County… They go, they shoot, they shoot off fireworks, they do it all. I go out there with them and I’m watching them do it – but I just can’t possess firearms or ammunition because of this.”

Find this story at Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions:kobradovich@iowacapitaldispatch.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Iowa City man suing state to reinstate gun rights 32 years after conviction