December 30th, 2007
Say Uncle covers a “Crooks With Guns” law that takes effect January 1st in Tennessee. It contains minimum sentencing requirements with no chance of parole for people convicted of “dangerous felonies” while in possession of a gun. He’s concerned that the law will cause more harm than good:
You see, I’d hate to see someone get ten years for selling orchids. In celebration, I’ll make sure that the last time I go tear off mattress labels while armed will be on 12/31/2007.
And he has more here.
It’s being sold, of course, as a “get tough on crime” initiative.
Nathan Moore notes a potential problem in the way the law is written:
Possessing a firearm in the commission, attempt to commit or escape from a non-dangerous “offense” (note, not felony) is a Class E felony. A Class E felony entails a one (1) to two (2) year sentence for a Range I offender. So, in essence, if you possess a firearm while committing the least serious misdemeanor, you could suffer a felony conviction (think Driving on a Suspended License because of unpaid tickets, or Criminal Trespass, both Class C Misdemeanors – and the way it is written, possessing a valid concealed carry permit wouldn’t matter a lick).
Kleinheider asks about mail fraud committed while in possession of a gun.
I think it would be tough to find many legal gun owners who don’t favor getting “tough” on criminal who use guns to commit crimes. But this law seems to take any sort of ability to pass judgment away from the judge, and the mere possession of the gun (legal or otherwise) will ratchet things up automatically whether warranted or not.
This is the sort of thing that leads to “zero tolerance” expulsions from school of kids who bring plastic knives to cut their school lunch with. When “knife = automatic expulsion” and “plastic knife = knife”, no one can exercise any discretion.
Tags: TN
