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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Good gun control

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi vows to get tough on gun crimes with something called Project EVICT:

More than a decade ago, the federal government initiated a program called Project Exile. The premise of the program was that an offender gave up his "right" to remain in his community if he used a gun during the commission of a crime. The defendant was punished with a sentence of hard time, typically five years. To make the punishment worse, the offender was shipped far away from his home, his family and his friends.

Project EVICT would effect the same punishment by sending those arrested and convicted of gun crimes in Marion County to the New Castle Correctional Facility. More than 400 beds are available in a mix of minimum- and maximum-security settings. Taking these offenders 40 miles from home breaks up potential networking opportunities, makes family visitation more difficult and sends home the message that gun crime isn't just illegal, it is intolerable.

Adding to the effectiveness would be mandatory sentences that increase in severity, say, five years for the first gun crime, 10 for the second, life for the third. But at least this is "gun control" that goes after the thugs instead of the people who have to defend themselves against the thugs.

Comments

Harl Delos
Wed, 07/16/2008 - 8:37am

What is special about gun crime, as opposed to crime committed with other weapons?

Is it the fact that guns are safer? That is, if you shoot someone with a gun, the person standing next to him is normally no worse for wear, except perhaps splattered by blood. If you attack someone with a broken beer bottle, or brass knuckles, or a Ginzu knife, or a bomb, or a flame-thrower, the odds are pretty good that other people are going to get hurt, unnecessarily.

Why shouldn't we simply punish the crime that is being committed?

Bob G.
Wed, 07/16/2008 - 8:44am

About damn time someone went after the PEOPLE instead of the device(s) brandished BY those people.

B.G.

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