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Stand your ground and mandatory sentences

WFFaithful said:
I find it interesting that most of those killed in these cases were unarmed while most of those invoking stand your ground were carrying firearms.
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It is the great equalizer, WFF. No matter how big you are, no matter how bad you are, no matter how much you like to say "motherfucker" don't mess with people. They might have a surprise for you.
 
Les Grossman said:
This Marissa Alexander case has nothing to do about race or stand your ground. Both were irrelevant in her case.

The one issue her case does bring up, though, is Florida's 10-20-Life law. As a general rule, I'm not a big fan of minimum mandatories, especially in drug cases. However, I have always been a big proponent of this law and I think other states should draft similar legislation. Given the easy access to guns in our country, I believe we should absolutely come down hard on gun crime. With one exception, however. The charge of aggravated assault should not be included. I have always had difficulty in justifying including this charge within the 10-20-Life construct.

Aggravated Assault with a Firearm carries a 3 year minimum mandatory sentence. In my opinion, that's fair. You point a gun at someone with the intent of instilling fear into them, you should get at least 3 years in prison. However, if you fire the gun that should not trigger the 20 year minimum mandatory. The reason why is this - if you fire a gun with the intent to injure someone then you wont be charged with agg assault. You'd be charged with attempted murder, and I'm fine with the 20 year min mand in that scenario. If you fire the gun with no intent to injure, then the intent behind the crime, to me, is no different than the original agg assault charge which carries the 3 year min mand.
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What does that mean? I was taught to aim only at things I intended on killing. Who is teaching firearms safety in Florida?
 
Isn't there a time limit in some states on "crimes of passion" or "in the heat of passion" whatever they're called, where there is actually enough time to go get a gun from somewhere, come back, kill someone, and still fall under the technical statutory definition of the passion law? I may be wrong, but I think I read something about it a couple of years ago on CNN.
 
TuffaloDeac10 said:
What does that mean? I was taught to aim only at things I intended on killing. Who is teaching firearms safety in Florida?
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What are you talking about? Firearms safety? What does that have to do with anything?

My post was in reference to minimum mandatory sentences regarding gun crimes. In particular the crime committed by Marissa Alexander in which she used a gun to scare someone (agg assault w/ firearm) and, then, fired a "warning shot."
 
I have always been under the impression that a gun should only be aimed at something that you're intending to kill (or break, in the case of a clay pidgeon). My question was basically "What does it mean to fire a gun without intent to injure when it should only be even aimed with intent to kill?" But I guess the agg assault charge is for when a gun is actually aimed away from the person the gun owner is trying to intimidate? It still sounds really dangerous, unsafe, and irresponsible, although I suppose 3 years would be a long time to spend in jail.
 
TuffaloDeac10 said:
I have always been under the impression that a gun should only be aimed at something that you're intending to kill (or break, in the case of a clay pidgeon). My question was basically "What does it mean to fire a gun without intent to injure when it should only be even aimed with intent to kill?" But I guess the agg assault charge is for when a gun is actually aimed away from the person the gun owner is trying to intimidate? It still sounds really dangerous, unsafe, and irresponsible, although I suppose 3 years would be a long time to spend in jail.
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I agree with you that someone should only aim a gun at someone if they intend on killing them when their life is danger. But, I'm not talking about rational people using guns in a legal manner.

You're correct - the agg assault charge is when someone uses a gun to scare someone, but without the intent to kill. In this case she used it to scare the victim, but apparently when she fired it she did it away from the victim. Currently, under Florida's 10-20-Life law, since she fired the weapon she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. I dont think the agg assault charge should be included within Florida's 10-20-Life law. That's why I said, it should be a minimum of 3 years in prison for agg assault whether the gun is fired or not.
 
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