Question of the Day: Baltimore Mandatory Minimum for Illegal Firearm Possession. Good Idea?

By Robert Farago

“Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis wants the General Assembly to pass legislation requiring that people who are caught with a loaded handgun be locked up for at least a year,” baltimoresun.com reports. “The legislation would convert the current sentence of up to 30 days to a mandatory year or more in jail. A second offense would be a felony that would require at least five years behind bars. The bill would strip from judges the discretion to reduce those sentences.” Good idea? Here are the pros and [not yet ex] cons . . .

At a news conference in Baltimore last week, Davis highlighted the case of a city man arrested with five illegal guns. He had been arrested two months earlier on a gun charge, and several other times before that.

Davis called him “just the type of gun-carrying bad guy that needs to be incarcerated.” . . .

The lawmakers pushing the bill in the General Assembly say they don’t expect it to end all gun deaths. But they argue it would limit risk.

“I don’t think there’s any one thing that is going to stop violence in Baltimore,” said Del. Luke Clippinger, the …Read the Rest

Source:: Truth About Guns