The man accused of stalking Donald Trump from behind the bushes at the edge of one of the former president’s golf courses never should have had a gun in the first place. Like Trump himself, Ryan Wesley Routh was barred under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition due to his status as a convicted felon.
It’s unclear how Routh, 58, obtained the semiautomatic rifle he allegedly used in an attempt to shoot Trump. But the confiscated weapon highlights the ease with which people prohibited from obtaining guns can continue to access them in a country where firearm ownership is common and constitutionally protected.
Routh’s long list of criminal convictions has disqualified him from firearm possession for at least two decades.
In 2002, he was convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction in North Carolina. That offense appeared to stem from an incident in which Routh barricaded himself inside a building, then had a stand-off with police, according to a contemporaneous report from the Greensboro News and Record. The weapon was a machine gun.
Routh was also convicted on multiple counts of felony possession of stolen goods, North Carolina records show. Those felonies would also prohibit Routh from possessing firearms.
The extensive list of misdemeanors on Routh’s record also includes convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest and repeated driving violations.
That criminal record would have landed Routh in the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The NICS database flags when someone prohibited from owning a gun attempts to buy one from a federally licensed firearms dealer.
But Routh still would have had several ways to obtain a firearm after his convictions. And it’s possible that he never gave up guns in his possession at all.
“We know in this country that it’s far too easy for people who have been deemed ineligible to have firearms, either by our laws or by a court, to access firearms through the loopholes in our laws,” said Kelly Drane, research director with the Giffords Law Center, which advocates for gun safety laws. “There’s a number of loopholes to our existing laws that make it possible for people to get a gun — no questions asked.”
Law enforcement officers typically confiscate firearms involved in crimes. When someone loses their gun rights, however, the federal government does not have a mechanism to enforce the prohibition. It’s up to the convicted gun owner to relinquish any other firearms he or she may possess, based on the honor system.
Only eight states have an enforcement mechanism to confiscate guns from convicted felons, according to the Giffords Law Center. North Carolina isn’t one of them.
And though Routh would not have been able to walk into a federally licensed gun store and buy the firearm he is accused of carrying Sunday, loopholes in federal law still make it possible.
No federal law requires private individuals to conduct a background check for a private sale that doesn’t involve crossing state lines, though about 20 states do.
Neither North Carolina, where Routh spent most of his life, nor Florida, where the apparent attempt on Trump’s life allegedly occurred, require background checks on private sales. Private sales have become more common in recent years with the advent of websites specializing in classified ads for guns.
“It doesn’t have to be this way — there’s a lot of policies we can use to close these loopholes,” Drane said. “A lot of states have already done that. … We have gun policies that we know work.”
Gun shows have historically provided another major venue where people can buy firearms without having to undergo a background check. The Biden administration attempted to close that loophole this year with new regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that would have required more sellers to become federally licensed firearm dealers.
A group of 21 states is challenging the new rules, however. A federal judge blocked the rules from taking effect in June in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah.
Routh also would have had several flatly illegal but common ways to get a gun.
People routinely attempt to buy firearms for others. Though such “straw purchases” violate federal law, a national survey of gun dealers a decade ago suggested that 30,000 attempts occurred annually.
It’s also possible that Routh obtained the weapon from a friend or family member. About one-third of Americans own a firearm, and guns are found in nearly half of American homes, according to the Pew Research Center.
And theft remains a common way for people to obtain firearms. About 112,000 guns were reported stolen in 2022, according to The Associated Press.
Authorities have accused Routh of wielding an SKS-style semiautomatic rifle in an attempt to shoot Trump. A Soviet-era predecessor to the more common AK-47, the SKS has been used in several high-profile shootings, including the 2017 mass shooting at a practice for the annual congressional baseball game that wounded five people.
We may never know how Routh got ahold of it.
The serial number on the unfired weapon, which was recovered on the public side of a fence at the golf course, was partially scratched off, according to law enforcement. That may impede authorities’ attempts to trace the gun.
Prosecutors charged Routh on Monday with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Defendants in criminal cases have challenged both laws in recent years after the conservative-dominated Supreme Court issued a sweeping expansion of Second Amendment rights in the landmark case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. That ruling said gun restrictions are constitutional only if they fit within a history and tradition dating to some time between the signing of the Bill of Rights in 1791 and the end of the Civil War in 1865.
A federal judge in West Virginia found the law barring possession of guns with obliterated serial numbers unconstitutional two years ago. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit overturned that decision last month.
Defendants have had more success challenging the felon-in-possession statute that Routh was charged with. However, those cases have generally been so-called “as applied” challenges that apply narrowly to specific cases.