New York state has very strict gun laws.
One of those laws imposes a mandatory prison sentence of three and a half years on anyone caught carrying a loaded illegal gun.
How’s that working for them?
In 2011, the latest year for which sentencing statistics are available, fewer than half the defendants who had been arrested for illegal possession of a loaded gun in New York City received a state prison sentence, according to an analysis of criminal justice statistics by the mayor’s office.
You don’t say. Tell us more.
In the Bronx, as few as 31 percent were imprisoned. In Brooklyn the rate was 41 percent; in Staten Island it was 47 percent; in Manhattan it was 68 percent; and in Queens it was 76 percent.
Now, let’s be fair about this:
…the law can sometimes trap travelers who bring licensed guns into the state. Critics of strict mandatory sentencing caution that allowances must be made for unwitting violations.
The NYT gives two specific examples of cases in which Bronx prosecutors did not seek the mandatory sentence: “a state prison guard who was not authorized to carry a firearm only because he had failed to submit the required paperwork” (only ones syndrome, anyone?) and “a Pennsylvania school bus driver who was traveling to his sister-in-law’s wake in New York”.
I’m all for prosecutorial discretion, but in more than 50% of cases? This is obviously some strange definition of the word “mandatory” I was previously unaware of.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2013 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Clippings, Guns, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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