Felon with a gun question???

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

My brother in law was caught with marijuana about 7 years ago and was charged with possession with intent to distribute, first and last time ever charged. He was sentenced to suspended jail time and house arrest for 1 year. His 3 daughters, ages 9, 7, and 5, made him rethink the way he was living his life and left all the crap behind him. He now works a full time job and helps to provide and is a great father considering his brief past with drugs and run in with the law. Tonight my mother, his mother-in-law, said a man was standing in the front of her apartment and heard him trying to open her front door to her apartment. He and my sister live the closest to her apartment so they drove over there. They have a gun in the house for family protection, considering they live in a middle class neighborhood and they have had a problem in the past with troublesome kids she wanted a gun in the house. He takes the gun with him to my mothers apartment complex and someone in the complex called the police. By the time he arrived the guy was gone and my mother and brother in law were standing in the front for a few more minutes and the police pulled up, they got out of the car and walked straight up to him assuming he was the guy trying to break in and proceeded to handcuff him. My mother tried to tell the police who he was and they continued their pat down and of course found the gun. My 3 nieces are at my home now crying, wanting to know about what is going to happen to their dad. My sister is trying to find out and figure out whatever she can. He is a good dad, brother, son, and friend, what can we expect with a decent lawyer?

Your brother-in-law is in a heap of trouble. Virginia is probably the WORST state for blatently breaking the law like he did.

His reasons for owning a gun are SPURIOUS in general, and being a felon are totally without any excuse.

There's a MANDATORY MINIMUM penalty of TWO YEARS IN PRISON for this. It could be as much as FIVE YEARS (provided they don't dig anything else to charge him with). In addition, if his felony is old enough that he's on some sort of parole or probation, you can bet that will be revoked.

He needs an attorney now. As states, his reasoning for carrying the gun against the law is questionable and will not avail him of much. About all he can do to avoid some serious penalty by the state or the feds is to have an attorney manage to suppress the evidence through showing this to involve a bad contact or search.

He needs an attorney immediately.

Yes, as I said, if they charge him with something other than mere possession, such as illegal concealed carry, he's in a heap of trouble. There are very onerous enhancements in the commonwealth for guns during crimes.