Would you rent to a convicted felon?

[Jason L.]

A couple applied to rent one of my houses (note: this is through an independent leasing services and I have not met or spoken to the applicants myself). They sent a long intro letter saying the boyfriend was convicted of a felony in 2014 for possession of a firearm. Their story was along the lines of: "He wielded a firearm to defend his elderly relative from an abusive uncle but never actually used it."

I'm conflicted because it was non-violent (shades of gray at worst), 5 years ago already, and they're assuring me his record is clean since (I have not run their background check yet since I wasn't going to make them pay for that unless I thought I'd actually rent to them). However, it feels like a lot of work to vette them and I'm probably going to require a larger deposit regardless.

Where do you stand on renting to a felon like this? Is it worth vetting further (pulling court records and/or police reports?) or hard no?