Jail Time Urged for Ex-Convicts Who Have Guns
Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said Monday that anyone found with a gun after being convicted of a violent crime or drug offense should be jailed for a mandatory five years.
He told a gathering of law enforcement officials that the Bush Administration will soon propose a revision of the Armed Career Criminal Act that would also tighten penalties for the use of firearms in the commission of crimes.
The crime package will also contain proposals for streamlining the habeas corpus proceedings that enable Death Row inmates to delay their executions in a fashion that Thornburgh said has “all but nullified the death penalty in 36 states.”
The two-day Attorney General’s Summit on Law Enforcement Responses to Violent Crime was attended by about 650 police chiefs, state and local prosecutors and federal law enforcement officials.
Thornburgh said the keys to ending criminal violence are stricter enforcement and tougher penalties, rather than seeking the social causes behind high crime rates.
“We are not here to search for the roots of crime or to discuss sociological theory,” Thornburgh said.
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