Slate
What does someone have to do in order to lose gun rights in Georgia?
Apparently, sexually assaulting a woman at gunpoint—even threatening to
anally penetrate her with the gun—is not enough. Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress reports on the shocking case of Dennis Krauss,
a now former police officer who was convicted of sexually assaulting a
woman in 1999 who had called 911 to complain that her husband was
beating her. According to the appeals court decision that
upheld Krauss' conviction, instead of helping the woman, Krauss
threatened to take her to jail if she didn't have sex with him.
Krauss checked them into a motel room while the woman sat terrified,
thinking she was under arrest, in the car. "I had to, I was afraid to
leave, he, you know, he is a police officer; you don't just leave," the
victim explained. Once he had her in the motel room, according to the
2003 appeals court decision, "Krauss took his gun from his gun belt and
told the victim he wanted to have anal sex with her with the gun." Then
he pushed her, pulled off her pants, and raped her.
Despite Krauss' sexual assault conviction, the Georgia State Board of
Pardons and Paroles restored his right to carry a firearm in July 2013.
This is coming to light now because the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published an exposé of the Georgia courts' tendency to restore gun privileges to convicted felons. The Journal-Constitution counted
358 violent felons who were able to regain gun rights in a six-year
period, 32 who killed someone and 44 who were convicted of sex crimes.
Debate Magazine
