Reply #198: Somehow I don't think your ideas would get very far. :) [View All]

I don't like seeing gun deaths either. I've seen the failure of the current brand of gun control for too many years. This is why I support a new brand now. Hopefully it will achieve the results we all want to see.



Project Targets Gun Criminals
June 4, 2004
Reported by KPLC Staff
http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1919376&nav=0nqxNfmq


You may wonder why police seem to seize so many guns-- well, getting guns used for crime off the streets has been a high priority of Lake Charles Police Chief Don Dixon since he became chief in January 2002. The special emphasis seems to have reduced local crime involving firearms.

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Chief Dixon says it's an initiative targeting federal prosecution of gun criminals: "If you're a convicted felon and we catch you in possession of a gun, there is no good excuse. There is no good reason. You're up to bad intent. These are the people out there who are repeat offenders, habitual offenders, and that's basically how they survive-- by committing crimes with guns. You take just one of them off the street it's going to help."

So, Dixon explains, whenever they find a gun they run a trace on it through the federal ATF . If possible, they pursue federal prosecution which Dixon says has great results: "It speeds the system up. These cases, normally, by the time the incident happens, we send it over. It usually goes before a grand jury within three or four months, we have an indictment, 95% of the time they're detained in the federal system which means they're a danger to the community-- there is no bond."

But even better perhaps, Dixon says there's been a tremendous reduction in the number of guns on the streets and in crimes involving guns: "Our reduction in gun crimes from 2003 compared to 2002--which is armed robberies with a firearm, aggravated assault with a firearm, I think is about a 30 per cent reduction."

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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.
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