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This is the seventh of the series, you can see the rest here.

HR 623 – Greater Judicial Discretion In Sentencing For Certain Firearms Offenses
To provide for greater judicial discretion in sentencing for certain firearms offenses committed in exceptional circumstances.
Sponsor : Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D – TX16)
Co-Sponsor : None

Current Status : Referred to the House Committee on the the Judiciary(1/21/2009)
Full Text

Summary:

Ok this one is pretty simple.  I\’m sure there was an incident that inspired this, but I\’m not aware of it.  It also seems completely bass ackwards from what it should be.  Basically if you carry a firearm as part of your job, and in the process of doing that job you commit certain acts of violence, the minimum sentencing guidelines are tossed out.  Yeah, that was the minimum, not the maximum, that is tossed out.  This seems geared towards police officers abusing their power and allowing judges to impose lesser penalties than would otherwise be required.

The specific acts of violence cited by the bill include any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime, and/or the weapons involved were basically Title II weapons (\”assault\” weapons, short-barreled rifles/shotguns, machine guns, grenades, atomic bombs, etc).

The author of this bill is a former Border Control agent, so one might think that this is in response to the imprisonment of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. And hence would like to give judges the discretion to toss out sentences that don\’t fill the public interest.  Except that Rep. Reyes has a long track record of OPPOSING any sort of immigration enforcement activities, so that\’s unlikely to be the reason.

To be quite honest, I don\’t see a real compelling reason or rationale for this bill.  And I really don\’t see the need to hold law enforcement officers (LEOs) to a different standard than anyone else.  LEOs are NOT Super-Citizens, nor should they be.  That on top of my universal fall-back position, that unless new legislation has an overwhelmingly compelling reason, it should die a quick death.

Toss this one on the scrape pile and move on.