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Friday, December 09, 2022

Proposed mandatory 10 years for gun crime draws Harris County D.A.'s support

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is looking to give prosecutors in the Lone Star State a powerful tool against violent criminals. 

"We have to put these people in jail a mandatory decade. Use a gun in a crime, ten years mandatory," said Patrick.

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WHAT???  Punishing those who commit the crimes with a stiff sentence instead of punishing innocent gun owners with tyrannical restrictions on their Rights? What a novel idea! Why didn't we think of that?

24 comments:

  1. ANDddddd...there it is:
    Ogg says that "Patrick's legislation should include prosecutorial discretion"

    The good Burghers of Harris County deserve to get exactly what they voted-for, Good & Hard.
    (apologies to H.L. Mencken)

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  2. Kenny, I've been dancing around getting into reloading. The big reason I haven't taken the plunge has to do with variables such as powder selection, max pressures, bullet weight and hardness, and more along these lines.

    None of the YT videos or articles I've seen or read talk much about these variables. Indeed, most often they seem to assume one already has the answers to their questions. I am most apprecioative of you or your audience address these concerns. Thank you.

    My e-mail is so screwy that I don't use it anymore

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    Replies
    1. Get either a Speer or Nosler reloading manual. I prefer Speer. The first half of the manual is step by step instructions on how to reload and they address those concerns in depth, much better than I can. Matter of fact, those instruction in the manuals is how I learned to load my own.

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    2. Kenny, thank you.

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    3. Like I said, they're step by step instructions. Follow them exactly and you won't go wrong.
      Seriously, I had nobody to teach me how to reload, so I started reading how-to magazine articles. One of them mentioned buying the manual for the instructions and I did. It was everything I needed to know. Basic reloading is a lot simpler than you'd think.
      BTW, the second half of the manual is loading data - what types of powder for your loads, how much to use, velocity you'll from those loads, the whole 9 yards.

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  3. "You defended your life with a gun? That's a mandatory 10 year sentence!" The Harris County DA has always been anti-gun. When concealed carry permits were first issued, anyone caught legally carrying a concealed weapon (usually during a traffic stop) was arrested and the gun was confiscated. The judge would release you the next Monday, but the only way to get the handgun back was to get a lawyer and hope you could get it back before it was destroyed. I agree with stiff penalties for actual criminals, but don't think for a second that the Harris County DA won't turn that law against the law abiding citizen.

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    1. Unfortunately what you say is true. Commit a crime with a gun, go to jail. Soon, just the act of carrying a gun will become a crime. Off to jail you go, commoner.

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  4. All gun laws are unconstitutional. Never give government power that you don't want wielded against your own, because when the political winds shift, it will be. No expansion of government power, it has too much as it is. IMHO, mandatory minimums are inherently unjust and paint every case with the same brush. Someone that smokes weed along side exercising their 2A rights will be treated the same as someone who shoots up a shopping mall.

    Harris county is one of the most corrupt places on earth and I wouldn't live in Houston unless I was paid at least $5,000,000 daily for the effort and even that is lowballing myself. I'm looking forward to the day I can get out of this state while being able to purchase land in the deep north. Idaho is nice, but I may entertain as far as Alaska when moving time comes.

    Authoritarian politicians like Dan Patrick are part of why I want out of the state and for him and him alone is the only time in my life that I have voted for a Democrat. I'll vote against him every time, even if I have to write in a rock.

    - Arc

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  5. Still has the potential for abuse.....I could see the law in California: "You robbed someplace with a gun? Well, we won't prosecute, but don't do it again! Other guy who used an improper non-California-approved safe? That's a gun crime! 10 years!"

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  6. And an Austin DA will slow-walk charging or simply fail to include that factor in the charging documents..

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  7. Two thoughts on this:
    1) The rebound has come. People were in favor of 'Three Strikes' types of tough crime bills. Then the bleeding hearts knocked that down. Now people are fed up with soft on crimes policies. Hence the rebound.

    2) Is Abbott keeping his name off this which is sure to again be a political football? Likewise, the other state Governors. They're MIA.

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  8. Bars have had signage for 30 years or so that is posted at the door that relates that carrying a gun into a bar is a minimum 10 sentence in Texas. About time Real crime gets the same treatment.

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  9. Remember "Project Exile" in Richmond, VA, where use of a gun in a crime was an AUTOMATIC nickel. Of course, it got repealed because for some reason it "impacted" the wrong people!

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  10. I live in a Houston suburb, this is all well and good but when you release them on money bail what the hell good does it do. They just kill people before getting sentenced. NAVEODDV

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  11. And a guy defends himself against BLM or reacts to a "mistargeted" no-knock raid (thinking it's a home invasion attempt), and instead of fighting the charges in court, takes a plea deal to avoid risking a mandatory 10 year sentence unless he's found not guilty of every single charge. Because he only has to be found guilty of a single crime *while using a gun* for the mandatory 10 year sentence to kick in. This is a beautiful gift to the gun grabbers.

    Mandatory minimums aren't to deter crime. They're to encourage plea deals. Prosecutors love them, because innocent people are terrified that they'll be convicted on one of the dozens of inflated charges the prosecutor files (innocent people are convicted all. the. time.) and that mandatory minimum will kick in. So they plead guilty to a lesser charge, ruining their lives but keeping themselves out of prison for a decade or more. It's a delightfully easy way to pump up their conviction rates. Guilt and innocence are irrelevant to the bad majority of prosecutors. Numbers are what matter.

    Ban plea deals, and imprison any prosecutor who offered one to a person (who accepted it) who was later proven innocent.

    Our justice system is a farce. Pedophiles spend less time in prison than people who took a peaceful tour of the capitol building. The solution to violent crime isn't giving more power to corrupt, unaccountable prosecutors protected by "qualified immunity" who delight in the opportunity to prosecute people on the Right.

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    1. "Mandatory minimums aren't to deter crime. They're to encourage plea deals."
      ^^^THIS^^^

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  12. Don't worry. They'll use this to enhance sentencing for all those innocent gunowners caught by their ridiculous restrictive gun laws. It will likely not be applied to the real criminals much.
    Giving more power to government never turns out like you think it will. This will have bad unintended consequences. I guarantee it. Think of this as a signal to buy stock in those private prison corporations.

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  13. Florida has had the 10-20-Life for gun crimes since the 80's. Geez, Texas...

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    1. Back in the 60s they had it up to life for using a gun while felonizing (not a word? It is now)

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  14. Here we go again with dumb Republican ideas.

    Eventually owning an AR-15 will be a "gun crime".

    But every Republican will scream "#*&$^@ Yeah! We need to crack down on gun crimes!!!111one.11"

    Instead, we need to shoot criminals in the face without crappy police departments and DAs getting to drag innocent people through the mud, making the process the punishment.

    Abolish gun all gun laws and "modifiers".

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  15. Now they'll redefine "crime". He was holding a gun while spouting hate speech.

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  16. Let’s bring back whipping as punishment.
    First conviction (specific crimes not murder/rape etc)
    Sentence 3 lashes then “go home and sin no more.”
    Second conviction is ten lashes in the public square.
    Shame has power too.
    Third conviction is twenty lashes ,broadcast to the nation, explaining the laws that led here.
    Fourth is long prison time as it is unteachable and must be kept from the public.
    Now,
    Just to make it fair, whipping is a choice, you could do the ten months and the two thousand dollar fine OR you can go beneath the whip.
    An idea whose time has come.
    Your pal
    Scott.

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