My question involves criminal records for the state of: New Mexico
In 2002 I was arrested for Battery Against a Household Member and hired an attorney. I was offered a plea agreement in which the charge would be reduced to 1 count of Simple Battery. For this I plead guilty and received a deferred sentence of 1 year and 1 year supervised probation. I completed all the requirements set by the court and haven't been in trouble since. The problem is I went to purchase a firearm approx. 2004 and several months later received a call from the ATF stating I couldn't own a gun. I was told I would need a pardon to restore my rights. At the time I had completely forgotten that the sentence was deferred and went along with the ATF agent and transferred ownership of my guns to someone else. My question is since the final disposition showed Guilty by plea with a deferred sentence shouldn't I be allowed to own guns?
I found this on the ATF website regarding just this issue:
Q: Is a person who received “probation before judgment” or some other type of deferred adjudication subject to the disability?
What is a conviction is determined by the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held. If the State law where the proceedings were held does not consider probation before judgment or deferred adjudication to be a conviction, the person would not be subject to the disability.
[18 U.S.C. 921(a)(33), 27 CFR 478.11]

