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Old February 14, 2019, 09:56 PM   #26
44 AMP
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Join Date: March 11, 2006
Location: Upper US
Posts: 28,677
Quote:
Yet we see day in and day out, stories of felons arrested in possession of a firearm. They never seem to be prosecuted on that charge either
This is a good example of the law of unintended consequences. They get arrested for possession all the time. But they seldom get charged with possession, unless there is nothing else to charge them with.

Some time back we added a lot of mandatory sentence requirements to illegal gun charges. They cannot be reduced or ignored. SO the result is that many criminals will plead to some other charge, with a lesser sentence if the prosecutors DON'T bring the gun charge. Prosecutors are happy, they get a conviction and the bad guy goes to jail for some time, at least.

(ex. pleading guilty and getting 6 years for dope (which might also be further adjusted with good behavior, etc) vs. 10 years mandatory if they get convicted on the gun charge.

I can't say if its the best way to deal with things, not sure what is, but whenever I see some report of them looking for, or have picked up someone who's on the sunny side of 30 with a dozen or more felony convictions, AND they have a gun on them, SOMETHING isn't working the way we want it to...
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