Oldphart posted:
I guess I'm one of a dying breed. I'm against backgrond checks.... period! According to some archaic rule, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The people who run the background check presume you're guilty until you prove your innocence.
The next question that comes up here is "what happens if some felon gets a gun?" To which I reply: So what? If he wants one he'll get it anyhow. Background checks do nothing to weed out the bad guys. They just make it more difficult for honest people to protect themselves.
I agree. Can anyone who supports background checks show us a statistic which clearly demonstrates that background checks reduce violent crime, including violent crime in which a gun is used? I'll sit back and wait. I won't hold my breath however. I don't want to be confused for Papa Smurf.
If we created a laundry list of VIOLENT crimes and made the punishment for them EXTREMELY harsh, we'd probably do some good. I don't care whether a gun, hands, fists, knives, bats, tire irons, etc. are used. Throw the maggot into a cesspool that he would never, ever want to return to, short of torturing him. Leave him there for a very long time. Long enough so that when he gets out he's too old and tired to commit VIOLENT crimes.
My idea would include:
Any crime where you physically threatened another human being with any type of weapon, outside of self defense, would carry an escalating punishment scale.
If you threaten with hands or feet, but don't actually make contact, 1 year for first offense, 2 years for second, 5 years for third. Any more and your outta there. Life in prison. If you actaully contact them with force, tack on 5 years.
If you threaten with knife, firearm, tire iron, baseball bat, etc. you get 5 years minimum. Could be more for extenuating or aggravated circumstances.
If you make contact with the weapon and cause even the slightest injury, you go to jail for 10 years. Extenuating or aggravated circumstances could add more.
If you send a person to the hospital, you also have to make restitution for the health care expenses you've caused, and you cannot leave prison until you've done so.
If you permantly disable someone, you get life with no parole. You screwed up the victim's life, why shouldn't your life also have the binders applied.
If you kill someone, you either get life at hard labor or the death penalty. You get to choose.
I know that this is not a perfect plan, but it's something I'd like to see implemented in some form. We can debate the pros and cons of the plan. It's my wish list, but I'm open to crititicism about it.