In a push to deter criminals, the state in 2021 passed a law strengthening the penalty for stealing a gun from a misdemeanor to a Class E felony with a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in jail.
The law was part of a legislative package that year that made Tennessee a permitless carry state, and it was added to appease concerns that allowing people to carry handguns without a permit could lead to more crime.
Gov. Bill Lee even included an extra $17 million in the state General Fund that fiscal year for an anticipated jump in incarceration rates.
But while the effort was meant to address crime and stiffen penalties, attorneys who spoke with The Tennessean said the new law actually makes the cases harder to prosecute.
To begin with, it’s a tough crime to prove.
…
Under the new penalty, defense attorneys have little bargaining room with the six month mandatory jail time and are less likely to settle a case.As a result, most felony gun theft charges are dropped.
Tennessee stiffened the penalty for stealing a gun. Is the law working? (dnj.com)
But wait, this next quote is just beautiful:
But the dropped charges show how a law that was meant to bring change in reality does little once it hits the court system, said David Raybin, a longtime local criminal defense lawyer.
“The dynamic has changed because now the sanction is so severe on a mandatory minimum case that’s already very hard to prove,” he said. “It’s the same philosophy that if we make the penalties harder it’s going to end the crime, and that’s absurd.”
Got it? And now we go back to the usual suspects in the same article:
Earlier this year, Rep. Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville, introduced a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor for gun owners to improperly store guns in a car or boat. As punishment, offenders would be required to enroll in a court-approved firearm safety course — a decidedly lighter penalty in a state that largely supports gun ownership.
…“It’s disappointing and frustrating because there should be penalties,” he said. “But I’m resolute and ready to push forward with some common sense solutions for this epically bad problem in Tennessee.”
Laws do not work for the criminals, so they are useless, but laws penalizing gun owners need to be passed so we can solve the problem. You have to love the way they ignore the contradiction.
And one more time: Secure you effing guns.
Had a similar conversation w/ a hardcore leftist regarding Hunter Biden’s plea deal on the gun charges. W/ the anti’s in congress demanding more laws, I asked where were they when the deal was announced. He dissembled, obfuscated, and tried to redirect to Trump over and over.
When I finally nailed his feet to the floor and asked him if he supported the non-prosecution of a felony gun charge while the administration states it’s ‘zero tolerance’, he bailed on the conversation stating I wasn’t debating honorably.
As usual, if they didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.
High mental compartmentalization.
.
And of course it’s not so much about what’s done, as who did it. Which tells you a lot right there.
The point is to make the law-abiding into paperwork criminals while leaving the violent free to victimize people. That way they can punish their enemies and reward their friends — the violent criminals.
It is easier to enforce the law against the law abiding.
And people with the wealth to not qualify for a public defender, well, the prosecutor gets the added joy of bankrupting them.