Quote:
Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus
After a friends son got off with probation for selling an illegal handgun I was stunned, I was wishing he would do a couple of years in hope of getting his life in order, makes no wonder kids today could care less if they get caught as long as they don't have a previous offense they get nothing. 
Calgary has 50+ shootings so far this year, Toronto has almost 300 and it's getting worst.
Brisbane, Australia saw gang crimes involving guns go up a few years ago so they passed their own minimum penalties for gun crimes.
* If convicted of trafficking illegal firearms you will serve a mandatory minimum term of five years in jail.
* If convicted of supplying illegal firearms you will serve a mandatory minimum term of three years in jail.
* If convicted of possessing an illegal firearm you will serve a mandatory minimum term of one year in jail
Since our judges are butter soft we need to have it cut and dry on minimum sentences. how many of these gang banger's would take a chance on selling guns looking at 5 years first offence? my guess would be a whole lot less than now |
Have mandatory minimums for gun crimes worked in other areas of the world they have been tried. What have Brisbane’s results been, Are they statistically significant?
Increased incarceration will cost a lot of money. Could that money be better spent on other crime reduction initiatives that would get better results. Say like adding more officers on the street. A year or two in prison for one person cost roughly what a single officer would cost.
I know there is strong evidence out there that mandatory minimums don’t have any affect on drug crimes and that Capital punishment doesn’t have an affect on murder rates. So my immediate reaction is that this likely has the same failing. The people who commit these crimes do not consider the penalty when choosing to commit the crime. I’m certainly open to being persuaded if there is evidence of it being effective.