Cops to crack down on gun violations

[JayS]

Thursday, June 03, 2004
Cops to crack down on gun violations
By WILLIAM F. AST III / H-P Staff Writer
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2004/06/03/news/news3.txt




CASSOPOLIS -- Southwest Michigan law enforcement officials on Wednesday announced a new program that Dowagiac Police Chief Thomas Atkinson said will "send away the bad guys for a long, long time."

"The goal is to move them out of the community and away from this area," Van Buren County Sheriff Dale Gribler said. Project Safe Neighborhoods-Southwest will provide Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties with a "gun detective" who will work full time on cases involving convicted felons with guns, according to Margaret Chiara, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan.

That detective, working with federal agencies, will send appropriate cases to the "federal system because our penalties are so much more substantial for this particular crime rather than the state system, where they are minimal," Chiara said. The detective's job will be mostly paid for by the federal government.

Felons found to be in possession of a firearm face two years in prison under Michigan law, Gribler said. The average sentence in federal court is 69 months, he said.

*SNIP*

[Lefty48197]

1. This is gonna piss off the NRA

they'll probably start ranting about how George Bush and John Ashcroft are anti-freedom and all of that other crap. Then they'll put all of their financial resources into seeing that John Kerry gets elected President.

[ROC]

2. I don't think so...

the NRA opposes gun crime and has always said so. Enforce existing gun laws and new ones aren't needed.

[slackmaster]

3. Please keep us posted

n/t

[JayS]

4. I can guarantee you, beyond all doubt, that the NRA will not...

...oppose this as it is a national NRA program to begin with. This experiment has actually been running in some form for several years in six different cities if I remember correctly. I know there is some hard data online gathered from these experiments and I will try and find them soon; I remember they were pretty technical though.