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Are Florida's gun crime laws working?
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Are Florida's gun crime laws working?
a 28 News report 6/10/02
TAMPA - The state's get-tough-on-crime "10-20-Life" law is supposed to put violent gunmen behind bars: pull a gun in a crime, 10 years; fire a gun, 20 years; shoot someone, 25 years to life, minimum mandatory.
Now, victims and their families are wondering why so many gunmen are not doing 10-20-Life.
Since the law went into effect in 1999, there have been 64,000 violent crimes with a gun in Florida. Only 559 criminals have been sentenced to 10-20-Life.
"They should do something about the law. What they say, they should do it," said Seema Akhtar.
The man who shot Seema Akhtar's husband is serving a life term, but thousands of criminals are still not doing hard time.
In some cases, the crimes have not been solved yet. In others, the case is still working its way through court. But either way, since the law went into effect, for every 100 crimes committed with a gun in Florida, only one person is serving 10-20-Life.
"Actually, I was shocked," said state representative Bob Henriquez. "When we passed the law, we expected that this would be a way to get tough on crime in the state of Florida, and it's obvious that criminals and attorneys and state attorneys and everybody else are finding ways to get around it."
In Hillsborough County, they're using the law to try hundreds of cases.
"It's an invaluable tool to assist us in prosecuting these people and something, quite frankly, we couldn't probably survive without," explained prosecutor Curt Allen.
The state says the numbers do not tell the whole story because the law is deterring crime. Since 10-20-Life went into effect, the state claims violent crime has dropped 24 percent.
http://www.wfts.com/stories/020610guncrime.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
a 28 News report 6/10/02
TAMPA - The state's get-tough-on-crime "10-20-Life" law is supposed to put violent gunmen behind bars: pull a gun in a crime, 10 years; fire a gun, 20 years; shoot someone, 25 years to life, minimum mandatory.
Now, victims and their families are wondering why so many gunmen are not doing 10-20-Life.
Since the law went into effect in 1999, there have been 64,000 violent crimes with a gun in Florida. Only 559 criminals have been sentenced to 10-20-Life.
"They should do something about the law. What they say, they should do it," said Seema Akhtar.
The man who shot Seema Akhtar's husband is serving a life term, but thousands of criminals are still not doing hard time.
In some cases, the crimes have not been solved yet. In others, the case is still working its way through court. But either way, since the law went into effect, for every 100 crimes committed with a gun in Florida, only one person is serving 10-20-Life.
"Actually, I was shocked," said state representative Bob Henriquez. "When we passed the law, we expected that this would be a way to get tough on crime in the state of Florida, and it's obvious that criminals and attorneys and state attorneys and everybody else are finding ways to get around it."
In Hillsborough County, they're using the law to try hundreds of cases.
"It's an invaluable tool to assist us in prosecuting these people and something, quite frankly, we couldn't probably survive without," explained prosecutor Curt Allen.
The state says the numbers do not tell the whole story because the law is deterring crime. Since 10-20-Life went into effect, the state claims violent crime has dropped 24 percent.
http://www.wfts.com/stories/020610guncrime.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878