In the latest show of hypocrisy from the White House, President Obama has increased the rate of sentence commutations for criminals doing time for firearm-related offenses.
USA Today reported last week that prior to August, 13 percent of inmates receiving clemency had used a firearm in the offense. In August, that rate increased to 22 percent, and on Thursday 11 of the 102 inmates being granted clemency were incarcerated for firearm-related offenses.
Not that you’ll hear anything about this from the White House. Instead, spokesman Neil Eggleston focused on the “drug-related” nature of many of the crimes being commuted.
“The vast majority of today’s grants were for individuals serving unduly harsh sentences for drug-related crimes under outdated sentencing laws,” Eggleston said in a statement. “With today’s grants, the President has commuted 774 sentences, more than the previous 11 presidents combined. With a total of 590 commutations this year, President Obama has now commuted the sentences of more individuals in one year than in any other single year in our nation’s history.”
Eggleston touts Obama’s record-breaking clemency spree, but fails in this statement to acknowledge the inconsistency between the President’s gun rhetoric and his actions.
Obama lectures the Second Amendment community seemingly every day on the “failures” of gun control laws in the United States. Between references to the so-called “gun show loophole,” the “online loophole,” and the “background check loophole,” Obama paints a picture in which state and federal gun laws are riddled with ways criminals can traffic illegal guns. His solution, inevitably, is to tighten gun regulations and make it even more difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
How does this rhetoric square with the President’s leniency on “gun crime”? It doesn’t. If Obama really wanted to reduce “gun violence,” he would stop pushing for new legislation and start enforcing the legislation already in place. Instead of harassing law-abiding gun owners, he would send a clear message to those who commit crimes with guns: “If I catch you, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
His latest actions have sent the opposite message. Rather than being “tough on guns,” Obama has communicated that committing a gun-related crime might actually get you out of jail sooner.
So, to review. If you’re a law-abiding citizen, the President has promised to do everything in his power to regulate into oblivion your constitutional right to keep and bear arms. But as soon as you decide to violate those gun laws, the President might just give you a pass.
This is “gun control,” but there’s no “common sense” anywhere in sight.
I agree with the author of this report whole heartedly… I live in Florida and back in the 1980’s I worked as an independent all-lines insurance adjuster right after the Cuban Mariel Boatlift occurred… The crime rate was incredible for over the next few years until I became a Special Investigator for the State of Florida assigned to the Southeast Region… During the time of my acceptance and assignment of my new job, I was hanging out with Governor Bob Graham’s legal aide and U.S. Congressional member Claude Pepper (a absolute incredible man that I will miss for the rest of my life) aide, doing all this political parties and help each other assignments per say… Governor Graham had asked us to sit in on all the Miami area’s cities meetings on gun control… We learned that every little or big city that makes up the Miami area had different laws from one another in relation to transporting or carrying handguns… Like one city said the guns had to be carried in the glove compartment and the adjacent city said it couldn’t be in the glove compartment but could be carried under the front seat whereas another city said you only carry a weapon disassembled inn the trunk but all the cities had one thing in common…. they all were banning guns from the citizens who needed them to protect themselves… All the cities were doing is making criminals out of the victims…
One day, a taxi driver, who was tired of being robbed, bought a handgun and told everybody that the next time he was robbed again, he is gonna shoot the robber… Well he got robbed and shot and killed the robber as he ran away… So, Janet Reno, our State Attorney at the time, put the cab driver on the fast track to get him to trial so she could make him a example of what not to do but her plan backfired when the jury acquitted him… The next day, criminals were being shot by citizens all over the Miami/Fort Lauderdale areas which ended the crime wave… After, all these years the crime wave could not be stopped by our police, the citizens did it for them… There are many examples of vigilantly justice in many U.S. cities that was the only thing that works when the police don’t… Of course during those times, as with the Miami area, some police officers were crooked and were misusing their authority to kill, rob, sell drugs, etc… (i.e. The Miami River Cops or as the called themselves “The Enterprise” whereas more than 100 cops were arrested for their part in killing drug smugglers and stealing over 9 million dollars in cocaine for one dealer and allowing their bodies to be thrown into the Miami River (which is right downtown)..( http://www.miamibeach411.com/news/miami-river-cops) During this time, Miami had 2 riots involving the Miami Police Department whereas the Miami police shot and a black motorcyclist, Arthur McDuffie ( on I-95 off ramp where I lived and saw McDuffie dead on the ground right after he was killed,,,His bike was undamaged parked on the off ramp when was going home… My first thought was why were the Miami Police doing at the Golden Glades area miles away from their city… They were way out of their city limits and sparked a riot when the Tampa jury acquitted both officers despite their blatant murder of McDuffie. This is when the Federal Government step in charging (for the first time in history) the police officers with violating McDuffie’s civil rights and were able to get a conviction…
Gun control should not be about knowing who has guns and who doesn’t, it should be about recovering stolen guns which are always used in violent crime… I can’t think of a single incident whereas these sick people use their own guns to commit a violent crime… One thing that hasn’t been discussed openly about the current gun control is why our forefather’s put in the 2nd amendment in the first place… If you read the first 10 Amendments, it will become clear that if our government no longer acts in protecting the peoples rights, like our government has been able to be control from companies and corporations who have enough money to afford today’s campaign costs which are only going to increase. Google “Campaign Laws – contributions…. You will see that our past government has tried to get the information to the general public as to who is backing a candidate and how much they are contributing so, we, the PEOPLE can see who is influencing our candidate to pass legislation designed to protect themselves from possible lawsuits ( just like they have been doing ever since because the People’s involvement doesn’t fit in to our busy schedule… which you can thank the 1960’s demonstrations (Civil Rights, Anti-War, Women’s movement, etc… I was there in the middle of almost every demonstration… and while this is going on, we had Ralph Nader who was successfully challenging The Federal Government with lawsuits to get Automobile Manufactures put in seat belts, bumpers, etc.. for driver safety in which the Government absorb him as an employee and put massive amounts of work to him but he was smart enough to get his work done and become even more successful in changing the system to protect us from dangerous products…
We have to take the money out of the political process… We have the technology to give all the candidates their own TV channel which is set up at our cost and under our rules and close the grey areas in the Campaign Election laws to stop big money from controlling our representatives… Our representatives no longer work for THE PEOPLES interest which is what the term representative means… Every dollar, every piece of land the Federal Government has is OUR MONEY… Every law passed must be in the People’s best interest… not a Special Interest Group, they are 1 person (corporations have the legal definition as a person with full civil rights in which protects the people in charge of same so that their personal fortunes that they obtain by illegal acts which they pass to themselves in the form of salaries, perks, bonuses, etc… so that they can steal their clients hard earn money and also confuse State Attorneys and Attorney Generals from filing criminal charges against the Board members since it is hard to prove “Intent” without one of the Board Members to testify against themselves to show intent… Now, when I was in law school my instructors told me that you can not charge anybody with murder without “Corpus delicti” which is usually means “a dead body”… Well after my education and entry into the world, State Attorneys tried to get a conviction without a body and were successful in doing so. Now every State has experience in getting a conviction without a body so they don’t need one if their evidence of a murder is strong enough to stand on its own… When I was an Investigator for the State, I had many cases that involved insurance personnel like Board members who stole money from their insureds and when I discovered it and brought same to their attention, they said the were unaware of this and will be happy to refund the money with interest.. Since I was new to this game, when a suspect cooperated with me and did what they could to correct the problem, I would still write up the charges (that was my job) and send it to our legal department (via my boss in Tallahassee) with a cover letter outlining the cooperation of the Owner or Corporation in correcting the problem and recommending that charges should be withheld until such time that another violation should occur. When my brother’s employer can embroiled with one of Florida’s Auditor, he volunteered to handle that problem since I was an Investigator with the State of Florida, Dept of Insurance.. My brother arranged for the auditors to meet me at a restaurant in exchange for lessening the charges against the carrier providing they pay all this money back, with interest, that they illegally charged them excessive rate that was authorized by the State of Florida. This Auditor was seasoned and told me that the Insurance Carriers are the experts in their field, not us.. Insurance companies created different policies for different products that we, as insurance regulators have to learn about their new products after enough citizens complain about this product… so we are behind the 8 ball to start… but insurance companies have insurance experts such as lawyers, personnel who have doctorates in insurance, etc… so insurance companies don’t make mistakes… They know what they are doing… That was all he wanted to say to me as an Investigator under Bureau of Investigations, Department of Insurance.. He made me aware that we can file criminal charges without a witness to prove the board’s intent… Well, my Bureau was the only non-political bureau in the Department of Insurance and my investigations made the insurance companies to put pressure on political factions in our Department to do an illegal act of dissolving our Bureau while my Chief or my Bureau underwent by-pass surgery in the early morning hours (2-3 a.m.) to do this illegal act which my boss could easily stopped but not at 2-3 a.m. while being operated… It was a done deal.. I had several top political connections oif which he called me before work to tell me what he and his bosses had done and that I will be the first Investigator that they will force to quit… Now the whole Department of Insurance is owned by the Insurance Companies with no protection for the State’s citizens… They done this to the PSC and Department of Labor and Security, etc… WE no longer have voting rights since the elections were fixed in which the Republican Governor Jeb Bush arranged with his Republican associates when he got his brother elected President… Several counties election officials were caught red handed changing election results from many of our precincts… I won’t go in detail since you can Google the Gore-Bush Presidential Election but it is sufficed to say that the government and legal parties obtain this information and caught these precincts management red handed and held onto the evidence, etc… but no one was criminally charged and we, The People, were never informed that this treasonist act will never happen again… How our state militias’ were disbanded by the ATF as crazy armed people when in fact these Militias were forming in accordance with the 2nd Amendment authority over the Federal Government… Our forefathers came from oppressive governments and the first ten Amendments listed as our BILL OF RIGHTS to assure that people have the tools to overthrow our standing Government that is no longer representing the People’s Interest and represent their own self-interest… Wake Up America… There are good representatives still in office bound by the Special Interests money so they can afford re-election but if we take away Special Interests BIG MONEY and limit them to only $1,000 dollar limit on any one election Campaign as per Bills passed to correct Special Interest’s financial influence since 1971 to date and how ineffective these laws have become with no one representative trying to pass laws making it criminal to give any more than $1,000 per citizen per election as the “INTENT” of Congress’s Financial Reform laws are trying to control [the legal term for such is the “Spirit of the Bill” which means what the Bill (or law’s intent is)]… so after 45 years of the original passing of this bill and subsequent bills that are trying to eliminate Special Interests Control over our Representatives who represents the PEOPLE’s interest and not to Special Interests that are stealing our tax money for themselves and friends of them (again the Special Interest Groups) just like in the story of Robin Hood or as my father-in-law always said “IT’S ALWAYS FROM THE HAVES’ AND HAVE NOTS’…” Hell our citizens don’t know what their actual rights are let alone understand why we have election laws in place to keep a record of every donation and from whom so you can see who is paying for your so-called representative and how much they are paying to get them elected. In this great age of the internet, this information is at your fingertips but few of us use our computers to learn about the people behind the campaign donations… Remember, wealthy people and incorporated businesses aren’t stupid or giving millions of dollars backing certain candidates out of a civic duty to protect us all… No… They expect a return for their investment that will pay off in more money than their investment costs… that is why campaign donations are used as a write off on your taxes just like a company’s advertising costs… Learn and verify my information… Teach yourself what is going on… I was part of all those protests in Washington DC in the 1960’s… The reason why it takes 2 people to earn enough to support a family ? President Nixon said about the 100 of thousands of people gathered in the open land behind the White House (where all of our tourists go) was completely filled by protesters against the war, then for civil rights, the woman’s movement, etc… Nixon said these people have too much time on their hands to come out here to protest… Shortly thereafter it went from the man financing his family and the mother raising the kids to 2 people had to work and either nobody or babysitters watched our children who could afford them whereas the poor had the kids watching themselves creating a new term called Latch key kids… between the 1960’s till now, the family unit has been disbanded whereas parents don’t spend enough time raising their kids and now those kids have kids of their own but no parenting skills… and so on and so on… so now we have uneducated adults that can’t work their way out of debt because they don’t process the skills growing up… Hillary’s idea of free education to anybody despite age… is building Americans back into the technological race… Education and knowing where the new jobs are needed and will grow to, our workers that were trained on outdated technology need to be retrained by can’t due to the restrictive cost and become a drag on the economy as well as increasing more arguments in the family unit leading to destructive behavior like alcohol, drugs, illegal activities that drag our economy further into debt in the form of cost of prisons and privatization of the prison management, in which, the private sector that are more interested in making money from the government whereas the government who runs the prisons only have to pay for the cost (without profit paying the actual cost of running the prison in which the private sector needs to obtain a profit) and now we are a Nation that has more prisons per captia than any other country in the world… And, our main problem still exists called rehabilitate the criminal, not make him a better criminal from other inmates… In conclusion, the United States of America died with the modern age when making money became more important to civil rights… One thing every company figure knows, is that if he/she take $1 away per month from their employees (mind you, pick a big corporation like McDonald’s who employ 1.9 million employees (2014)] which means every month the Corporation will gain 1.9 million dollars totaling $22.8 million dollars per year (this is called the Theory of Big Numbers) so you can see how much money taken from your paycheck turns into millions for a big corporation but it stands true for small businesses… But if you reverse this problem to say how much will it costs McDonald’s to give their employees a $1 raise which cost McDonald’s 1.9 million dollars per month totaling $22.8 million per year… Now you understand why these companies are so frugal in handing out raises… They already have the 1.9 million per month or 22.8 million per year because they collect the money each store takes in so giving any of this money back to the employees who earned the money for the corporation costs the corporation millions per year… which they want to keep for themselves… This is why Republican leaders will say our country is a capitalistic form of government and the less fortunate will say it is a democracy…. They both provide what this government gave to its future citizens , their freedom, from a depressive type of government… these corporations who can afford hundreds of millions of dollar to buy a seat in Congress or the Senate of which they can gain protection from the citizens who are damaged by their product and still pay their employees making millions… at WE, THE PEOPLE’s, expense… Do something about it… We no longer need to show up collectively at our government’s location but we can do the same thing by email, fax, etc… The internet allows us to find the right people tohelp you in every aspect of protesting the government and forcing them to account for their actions… Use it effectively my friend before anything gets worse… Like the Presidential race, the candidates pick what issues they want to stand on and argue for instead of we, the citizens dictating what the issues should be… Like for me, election validation is what I want.. When we vote, we should get either a printout or an email giving us who we voted for in which race and where are vote was counted in this race… Like mayor race, my vote for numb nuts counted as the 1,254 vote in that race and my Governor for Big Fat Liar was counted in that race at 2,954, 205 vote counted in this election… See, you have an record of who you voted for and which race confirming you vote was counted in that race here, at this number…. Your account with the Federal Government should list this information for your entire history of your voting that you can be assured your vote counted, with your name attached to that vote to make election fraud more difficult to do and make your elected official accountable for their actions if these accounts are attached to their voting history while acting as your representative so you can know where their allegiance lies… OK I’m gone sorry about getting on my soapbox… I’ll be dead very soon and I am trying to pass on my living knowledge of 60 plus years especially what I witnessed as a young teenager in Washington DC during the 1960’s… This is something that is lost with each person’s death… I love to interview WW2 vets especially the Pacific Theater… They don’t make men like that anymore unless we are placed in a similar situation… The camaraderie of the nation was beyond belief… Their stories unprecedented… Fascinating people…
GingerBaker, I have had a 13 shot Beretta pistol for over 30 years. Nice accurate gun. Gov. Cuomo passed the SAFE Act overnight in NY without any public discussion. Does that sound like representative government? For the people? That sounds like government for Governor Cuomo so he can get national recognition as a tough anti-gun politician. Screw the gun owners of NY. He doesn’t want to hear from them or even the elected sheriffs of the 60 counties in NY who opposed this law. Back to my Beretta. Cuomo said I can only have a 7 shot magazine for it. Nobody makes a 7 shot magazine for my gun. So do the math, make the connection, however you phrase thinking. He just outlawed the legal gun I had for 30 years. Change the name from legal to now illegal. Funny thing-it is the same 30 year old gun.
Obama is an anti-American idiot democrat. He pardons FELONS who used guns to commit crimes and these felons will probably use stolen guns to commit more crimes. The honest Americans, including old, disabled, veterans, will be assaulted, robbed, raped, and money taken from the honest, defenseless Americans will probably be used by dope heads to buy illegal drugs or commit terrorist acts!! Why do the people in California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, etc. elect idiot Democrats such as Obama, Clintons Hillary and Billy, Tim Kaine, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Schumer, Bloomberg, Soros, Healey, Brown, McAuliffe, Katie Couric, Harry Reid and others of the same ilk? There may come a day when the honest American people need to fight to keep their Constitutional rights.
Your entire comment is complete rubbish and furthermore ANYONE else who thinks a human being needs to be locked in a cage for the rest of his life because the cops kicked in the door to his home for a drug bust and also happened to find a handgun after tearing the house apart is a completely indoctrinated wacko just like you! Way to go Obama you are finally doing something worthwhile! The entire idea of “criminals” being stripped of their constitutional rights is complete and utter B.S. and you call yourself a Patriot! Mr. Sheeple is more like it!
I guess “Slingblade” wants his gun back.
Slingblade,
I can see the point you’re making, but insulting folks is perhaps, not the best way to go about making it. The case you present above is exaggerated, or missing some of facts. Police do not usually kick in doors without a warrant, or reasonable suspicion. They open themselves up to big lawsuits when they do. Judges do not usually lock folks up for the rest of their lives for simple drug possession charges, even if a legal firearm is present. The types of sentences and police actions you described are usually reserved for drug traffickers, and even then, on a 3 strikes and you’re out, basis (I understand there are exceptions, and jurisdictions w/”zero tolerance” laws).
I do not like to see young adults branded with a felony conviction for the rest of their lives for experimenting with marijuana. We all made stupid mistakes when we were young. I do not like to see people losing their 2A rights because they were traffic stopped and searched in a “No Carry Zone” city, like Chicago, and discovered to be carrying an otherwise legally concealed weapon (as an Indiana post-er to this domain reported here several weeks ago).
Right, wrong; fair, or unfair, we all must live with the consequences of our actions. You don’t like the drug laws? Change them like Colorado did.
maybe we need to go back 150 yrs. and uphold the laws that were in place then and just put them to death. the reason they were put in prison was to keep them from harming the rest of us humans from being harmed by them. also if they are criminals and doing no wrong why in the heck do they need a firearm? you lib minded azzes need to get your heads straight and think of what you are saying. if not take more B12 to help your brain.
Here is a question….. How many were Black????? I would bet most….
And they all be black, right?
Another thing that liberals get wrong about guns……They are very ignorant about most if not all gun laws currently in place. They are totally ignorant to the fact that the “gun show loophole” and the “internet loophole” and the “background check loopholes” are ALL FAKE!! Made up lies by….liberal politicians. Oops….I meant to post this in the “What liberals get wrong about guns” article. LOL! Will copy and paste.
Draino, you are right about the liberals getting things wrong about guns, but you are wrong about them being ignorant about the purpose of these new gun laws. We all understand that liberals are using regulations, restrictions and gun laws to effectively disarm the American people. What obama has added to the mix is to release violent felons back into the population to INCREASE the level of gun violence, not reduce it as he maintains.
When the gun violence inevitably increases because of his “reasonable” actions, he will use that “crises” to issue even more executive orders to infringe on private gun ownership. From their perspective, liberals are not being wrong-headed about the Second Amendment, they are doing exactly what they need to do to bring about the gradual disarming of the populace.
obama, like all tyrants, understands that you cannot abuse the other inherent rights of an armed populace.
” We all understand that liberals are using regulations, restrictions and gun laws to effectively disarm the American people.”
Really?!? How has anyone been disarmed? Seems to me gun ownership is at an all-time high, and our gun rights more secure than ever. And are you saying that conservatives do not want any firearm regulations?
Sorry for breaking script (snark)
Dear Doubting Thomas, (aka ginger baker)
Look at the scoreboard. We are only in the 2nd quarter. Liberals, progressives, gun grabbers, et al, Are leading in points scored and there’s a whole nuther half to play. They are in it for the long haul and will never give up the field.
Unless we find a way to save it, the 2A will die a death of a thousand cuts and the 1A will follow shortly behind.
Your silky, uninformed post is just one nick in that thousand count.
Change silky to silly. Although silky might work too.
GingerBaker, The first effort to disarm the American individuals was the passing of the New York State Sullivan Act in 1911. No one was allowed to keep his or her handgun in New York City without a license at that time. Since 1911, no one has been given a license to carry a handgun in that city for the stated purpose of self-defense. If one carries diamonds from store to store, or normally carries large amounts of cash for retail purposes, one can apply for a gun license. The political leaders in New York city do not consider a person’s life to be as important as gem stones or cash.
Since 1911, hundreds of Federal and state restrictions have been passed into law across the United States. NONE of these laws have disarmed the criminals. ALL of them serve one purpose only, to infringe on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Call me crazy but I don’t think that criminals worry all that much about gun laws.
Let’s consider the concern of “Max” the bank robber. “Oh, oh, the government just passed another law, this one is outlawing pistols that have a 15-shot capacity magazines. Let’s see, should I go to my local Black Market and get a pistol with a 7-shot magazine capacity magazine, or not. Nah, I’ll just rob the bank down the street with my illegal pistol.”
How can the Second Amendment right of a NY City citizen be oppressed, while another citizen across the border in Vermont can carry a concealed handgun with no license or permits? Are the residents of NY City second class citizens?
Does any of this make sense to you GingerBaker?
A democrats staple rule…never let a good crisis or tragedy go to waste. I fully agree. But my point is, these loopholes they keep touting do not exist…..they are lies. There is no gun show loophole. All FFL’s are required to(and DO)do back ground checks when they sell a firearm…..no matter where its sold. Bud’s Guns, Gun’s America, GunBroker…..all these places will only send guns to valid FFL who what?….RUNS a background check before completing the sale. That’s my point. They keep perpetuating the lies….and don’t get called on it. That’s what I am talking about here.
Very good, Joe, I was just about to say the same thing. Actually obama terribly hated to do this, Because this goes against his regime’s Totalitarian schema to keep absolute permanant gun ban punishment for any serious crime so as to eventually set the stage for enough bureaucratic/administrative Fiat mandates and bills/acts/laws to eventually make us all criminals with the gun ban penalty…which will effectively disarm any potential of an armed dissenting citizenry. but yes, virtually all would be ‘cherry picked’ gang banging drug dealers, mostly black or latino, who’d kill for a dime bag over a bad deal, And of course, like the reason he sucks terrorist ass to radical muslims…it’s all about the minority votes.
Crime is going to go again.
In Obama’s hometown, Chi-raq, a town with some of the strictest firearms laws in the Nation, 3 more were murdered in shootings over the weekend, 14 wounded. See the story here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-violence-shootings-20161008-story.html
And, in Chi-raq they spit criminals who use firearms in commission of their crime back onto the street almost as soon as their in:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-anita-alvarez-gun-crimes-sentences-perspec-20160902-story.html
I guarantee these repeat violent criminals, and those Obama is giving clemency to, will kill far more humans than all deaths by modern sporting rifles (the liberals dreaded, “Assault Rifle”) in America, combined.
WRONG…these are not VIOLENT offenders they are DRUG offenders! Since when did simply possessing a firearm automatically make you a violent offender? Whenever the cops bust down your door for a drug bust and also happen to find a firearm, that’s when, or when they pull you over for not signaling a lane change and then find some drug paraphernalia in car and maybe an unloaded gun in the trunk or something, that’s when. Heaven forbid that should happen more than once then you are a REPEAT VIOLENT OFFENDER! Wake up American it ain’t just our 2nd Amendment rights that we are losing and in some cases already lost!
As I stated, “I guarantee these repeat violent criminals, and those Obama is giving clemency to…” I was talking about two separate groups of individuals, group 1 from my 2nd paragraph (violent felons given the revolving door treatment), and group 2 from my third paragraph (Drug convicted felons, now schooled in our Nation’s prisons). I stand by my hypothesis of the net result of these light sentences for violent offenders, and the early release of narcotic traffickers that possessed or used firearms.
Thanks for the reply and your certainly entitled to your own thoughts on the subject however I must say I never meant to insinuate that any of the “door busting” was unlawful, but lets face facts getting a search warrant these days is almost completely automatic…no problem whatsoever, it’s a literal joke. Furthermore after they get a warrant to look for banned plant material or like and they are inside then anything is up for grabs in direct violation of the Bill of Rights…who cares right?… it happens time and time again. Once they find a gun in the residence or vehicle then here we go with the “violent” criminal tag being automatically applied. By the same logic if the police came to your home with a warrant to look for and confiscate all the raw unpasteurized milk your three dairy cows have been producing and that you have been selling to your neighbors and friends and while they are there they find your shotgun that grandpa gave you in the closet. Oh boy does that now all of a sudden make you a violent milk trafficker…better hope you don’t like that fresh milk too much because WHEN they come back around you are going to be a repeat offender. They whole damn thing is a joke and a disgrace! These people were not charged with violent crime they were charged with DRUG OFFENSES which were enhanced because the police subsequently searched and found a gun. Then all that is left to do is run them through the prison industrial complex and repeat again. These people are being demonized for political purposes. The man being talked about in the video is going to spend 20 hard years in a cage instead of life because of Obama and yet people are bitching that ain’t enough. They went to his house, busted down the door and found some paraphnelia and there was also a gun in the house. Is that reason enough to lock a man up for life just because the same similar kind of crap had already happened to him twice before! What is wrong with people want that crap? It solves nothing and destroys families.
Slingblade,
As I said before, I see your point. I guess I take a Libertarian view on our drug laws (probably not too popular, as yet). Why not legalize all drugs and collect tax revenue on them. It would take the drug trade out of the hands of the criminal element, like ending prohibition did with alcohol. It would stop most of the gang murder rampages in cities like, Chicago, where drug funded gangs fight for retail space. It would stop the epidemic of fentanyl laced heroin overdoses killing many of our Nation’s children. It would better control the access of drugs by minors, if drugs were only sold in Pharmacies/Liquor stores, where customers would be carded. It would probably pay off our National Debt in short order.
I don’t believe it would create more drug addicts. You are either susceptible to addiction, or you are not. If people (adults) want to kill themselves with drug addiction, you can’t stop them.