Eliminating Gun Enhancements Not a Bad Idea, Hiding Criminal Records Is

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Reform-minded activists in California vow to move forward after a bill that would have dramatically reduced, and in some cases eliminated, enhanced sentences for crimes committed while using a gun failed to advance through the legislature,” Fox News reports. “The state lawmakers who backed the Anti-Racism Sentencing Reform Act claim the existing law, which allows prosecutors to seek additional time behind bars, is racist — 89% of the roughly 40,000 inmates serving gun enhancement sentences in California are people of color, according to figures from Restore Justice.”

One could argue that 89% reflects personal behaviors that have nothing to do with “systemic racism,” and that excuse is being used by “progressive” gaslighters to deflect responsibility and shift blame. Combine that with using the same excuse to evade accountability for the violent crimes themselves, and it’s obvious they’re looking for a race-based hard pass on punishments of any kind.

That said, before kneejerk dismissing eliminating enhanced sentences for guns, those who advocate for the right to keep and bear arms might want to think it through. Is the idea really that insane?

It’s been my longstanding contention anyone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted without a custodian. That could range from maximum security solitary for the most dangerous offenders to a secured care facility for the ones whose behavioral improvements warrant observed and tested movement toward reintegration into society. As the late Robert Kukla observed in his classic book Gun Control, you wouldn’t sentence a man-eating tiger to x years and then just open the cage when its time was “served.” Unless you were a maniac.

But that’s the state of our current “justice” system. Who thinks if you let predators out, they won’t be able to get a gun when they want one or kill people using something else? Aside from useful idiots who believe the propaganda from the violence monopolists?

In terms of gun enhancement penalties, that’s why the Project Exile Condemnation Coalition was formed 20 years ago to oppose the NRA-backed federal program. Our position was:

The signers of this statement support any reasonable law-enforcement program that removes violent repeat-offender felons from our cities and neighborhoods, but only if the laws utilized to convict and to punish such felons are constitutional.

We condemn any program that involves enforcing unconstitutional ‘laws’, even if such ‘laws’ are enforced only against violent criminals. Unconstitutional ‘laws’ are illegal, harmful to public safety, tyrannical, and are inevitably enforced against ordinary, non-criminal citizens.

The ‘Project Exile’ supported by the current NRA management calls for enforcing all existing gun laws, regardless of their unconstitutionality and regardless of their being enforceable against non-criminals. Furthermore, the current NRA management’s quoted remarks … indicate a disregard for our public safety, our heritage, our freedom, and our Constitution.

Think about it: If they ban semiautos and you do not comply, guess who gets caught up in the net. Ditto if you defy a magazine ban or a due process-denying “red flag” prohibition, or any of the innumerable prior restraints and citizen disarmament diktats designed to separate you from your rights.

It was because of this that I came out so strongly against Rep. Amen Brown’s proposal to add to the enhancements (I wish these Democrats would make up their minds), and was candidly surprised to be contacted by some gun advocates telling me I was wrong. His bill would be specifically worded to include only “the baddest of the bad,” who had been caught in violation of gun possession prohibitions multiple times, they argued.

I’ve been holding off on revisiting that because I haven’t seen the text of Brown’s proposed bill yet, but I’ll tell you right now that doesn’t matter to me. It does not change the reasons the Coalition gave for opposing Project Exile. Supporting it gives gun owner sanction to the contention that “gun control” works, and who hasn’t seen the Democrats pass a bill and then come back and say they need still more? Give it time and some outraged harridan in  Moms Demand shirt will be screaming about a “boyfriend loophole” or some hustler will be demanding to close the “hater loophole.”

“Gun advocates” endorsing such “laws” falsely legitimize them in the public’s mind. Plus, you give in on one front and that’s one less obstacle the grabbers will need to overcome on their long march to their end game—having it all. Because yes, despite the ubiquitous denials, they are doing more than talking about taking our guns.

The hell with that.

OK, but possession is one thing. What if the bad guy uses a gun in a crime?

Remember what Archie Bunker said (proving sometimes “liberals” make a good point when they don’t mean to)? If you murder someone, or assault someone, or rob someone, or threaten someone, the circumstances will dictate the severity and you need to go away until you are penitent (as in “penitentiaries”), you make restitution, and you prove through actions that can be evaluated and adjudicated that you are no longer a danger.

If you can’t do that, sorry. Not.

Meanwhile, those seeking to let criminals escape accountability for their choices aren’t done. Now they want to pull another Cultural Marxist scam and erase history.

“The Clean Slate Act, which is sponsored by state senator Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, would remove publicly available criminal records for most felonies and misdemeanor crimes after people have completed the terms of their punishments,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

What could go wrong?

And no surprise here: Myrie wants someone else to pay the tab for crimes with “S.1048-A, legislation aimed at the gun industry’s immunity from civil lawsuits stemming from the dangers posed by its products.”

Have you noticed how citizen disarmament fanatics always hold the wrong people accountable?

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

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