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I’m taking a bit of a victory lap here.

TL;DR: I bought a gun in July online but failed the background check due to a 2012 hospital stay. Despite everyone telling me to get a lawyer, I researched on my own, found the right form (JDF-35), and submitted it without legal help. After a few weeks, my application was approved, and my gun rights were restored. I’ll be picking up my gun in three days.

Back in early July, I bought a gun online that seemed like a pretty good deal. I had it shipped to a shooting range near my house for the FFL transfer. When I went to pick it up, I did the background check—and failed. I hadn’t bought a gun in over 20 years, so I hadn’t tested whether I could still purchase one. Back in 2012, I had a crisis due to some extraordinary circumstances, and it turns out I wasn’t as voluntarily in the hospital as I thought I was I never tried to leave early.

I appealed the background check but promptly failed that as well, though I did receive a case number. Seeing “mental defective” on the CBI background check was hard to swallow. I think it’s unfair that needing help at the lowest point in your life can preclude you from ever owning a gun. I spent the next few days considering illegal ways to get my gun or even manufacturing one with my lathe and mill. But those were all very bad ideas, and I don’t recommend going that route. Mostly, I just didn’t want to lose the money I had already paid for the gun. What I really wanted was to own it legally, so I started researching.

I turned to Google and ChatGPT, and even made a few Reddit posts, trying to figure out how I could get my gun rights restored. I couldn’t find any information on how this is done in Colorado—Pennsylvania and Oregon, on the other hand, are well-documented. Everyone on Reddit told me to get a lawyer and that I couldn’t do it on my own. I didn’t know if I needed to get my court record sealed or expunged, or even which district to file in. But someone on /r/askalawyer pointed me to the correct statute, C.R.S 13-9-124, which says you can petition the court to have your firearms prohibition removed.

As I dug deeper, I started figuring out the legal language I needed. With the help of ChatGPT, I began learning how to write a semi-coherent petition and how the process works through the court. I figured I could try without a lawyer first, and if I failed, I could try again with one. I’m a very DIY type person. I gave myself six months before expecting any results. After about two weeks of research in my free time, I was starting to piece it all together.

I geared up for the petition, writing letters for my friends to sign attesting to my character, pulling my criminal history(none) and medical records. While poking around on the state court website, I found the magic form: JDF-35, Application for Administrative Relief from Federal Firearms Prohibitions Imposed Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §922 (d)(4) and (g)(4). The form had a list of criteria that needed to be met, like having no more than one re-commitment and ensuring three years had passed since the prohibition was added to the NICS database. It also had rules about whether it was a long or short commitment. The form even referenced another statute indicating that my court case had already been sealed automatically—cool.

With this information, I completed the form and mailed it to the Colorado Office of State Court Administrator, figuring that if it wasn’t right, I’d get some feedback on how to proceed. I also sent some emails to the OSCA to get a time estimate and heard back that it would take 3-4 weeks—much less than the six months I had expected.  While waiting, I tried fishing for free legal advice by contacting about ten 2A lawyers. One said my case wasn’t a match for them, and another confirmed that I did have the correct form, though he never called me back when I tried to follow up. The rest didn’t respond.

I’m pleased to share that my application for administrative relief from federal firearms prohibitions has been approved. The approval means that my gun rights have been officially restored, allowing me to legally own and possess firearms once again. This decision is a significant step forward, reflecting the positive outcome of the process I initiated to reclaim my rights.

In conclusion, I’m excited to announce that I will be picking up my gun in three days, marking the culmination of this journey. I’m looking forward to enjoying my restored gun rights.

Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this blog, but I haven’t had that much going on. I’m still kind of stuck at home with my ankles still recovering. My surgeon wants me to get a cat scan or mri to see whats going on. I still have a bunch on pain in the back of my ankle, the surgeon thinks I may have a tendon that’s getting pinched hence the imaging.

I’ve been busy with Linux in the mean time. I rolled my main laptop over to debian testing right around the time bookworm came out. I’ve been pretty happy on debian, and the testing repo has plenty of fresh updates. I’m temped to go to debian unstable, which is called Sid. The releases are named after toy story characters . If I go to Sid things are a little less tested, but someone has to test them to see if it’s ready for prime time and my Linux skills can deal with some fiddling around to make things run . Maybe in the next few days I will move over. I also started over with my raspberry pi and that is on debian sid. I’ve had no trouble so far. I’m still running Arch on the other laptop.

This past two weeks or so I’ve been working on getting a bitcoin node fully functional. It’s been a project for sure. 1^st you have to download the complete block chain which is 400GB plus. Then you have to build the transaction index, that takes a few days. Just when you think you might be done, the electrumx server needs to build it’s own database, and that takes around 3 days. I spent more time than I’d like to admit staring at a console watching it processing blocks. The raspberry pi wasn’t up to the task. The blockchain is more that the little arm processor can handle. I ran most of these steps on my laptop, when it was done I moved it over to the Pi. I now have a fully functional electrum server. It’s at linuxmonkeybox.com port 50002. I had some issues getting it to serve ssl on port 50002, but with some help from the developers I got it. It’s semi-public, I’m staying away from getting on the official electrum server list as I don’t have unlimited internet. I have left the server available to anyone that knows the address. If you are a reader of my blog feel free to use the server for your bitcoin needs if you use electrum wallet.

I’d also like to take a moment to remember my grandmother who passed away on the 17^th. She almost made it to her 101th birthday. We shared the same birthday, and she was always in my life. She will be missed.

So yesterday I was doing some laundry when my Mom started to smell something burning. Then the washer stopped… I was thinking that maybe the motor burned up. I figured that I wasn’t up for taking apart the washer so Mom called Bearvalley Appliance. They thought it sounded like the timer was at fault and that the timer is unavailable. They more or less implied that it was unfixable but for over a hundred dollars they would come to look at it. I figured I could get the electric panel off and at least see what was burned. The timer and controls all looked good and the burned electric smell was coming from under the lid. With my sister’s help, we moved the washer out, and then I got it apart. I found that the switch for the lid was badly burned an most likely the culprit. I couldn’t find anything looking up the part number from the part and someone erased the model number from the washer-dryer. So all I had to go on was that it’s a Kenmore and it needs a lid switch I found a similar-looking switch on Amazon that has extra connections for a lid lock(our washer does not lock the lid). I’m hoping that the part fits, as it’s a bit of a crap shoot finding parts for a washer made in the late 1900s (1998). The part should be here Friday and until then I’m just waiting for parts. I guess I was up for taking the washer apart and I’m not totally out of commission.

Well it’s been 7 weeks and I’m still on crutches. This ankle (my left) is taking so much more time to heal. The process of the surgery is pretty amazing. If you would like to see some more of what the implant looks like https://www.wright.com/footandankleproducts/inbone-ii-total-ankle-system. I’m doing Physical therapy twice a week and I hope that will get me back on track. My foot is still pretty swollen, but not as bad as the picture. That was from the 2nd week. I’m really glad that I only have two ankles and both are done and that I don’t have to go thru this again.