The man accused of stalking Donald Trump from behind the bushes at the edge of one of the former presidents 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.

Its 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.

Rouths 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.