Today the Utah senate approved a bill in hopes to reduce gang violence in Utah. Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden drafted this bill to make it a class A misdemeanor if a person convicted of a gang related crime is caught carrying dangerous weapon within five years of the date they committed the “gang related” crime. Senate Bill 28 would prohibit some convicted gang members from possessing guns, ammunition or anything that looks like a firearm.
This sounds good at first until you look at it a little closer. This is going to do absolutely nothing to help the current gang problem. We are already talking about people who have no respect for the law in the first place. If they did they probably would not have committed the so called “gang related” crime. Also this is only a class A misdemeanor which means it will probably just be dropped when it comes to court anyway since it will more than likely come with other charges that are more severe.
I have a crazy idea. How about they just enforce the laws that are on the books already. In the great state of Utah if you are carrying a gun concealed without a concealed carry license you have already committed a class A misdemeanor unless of course you are already a convicted felon then you are committing another felony by just being around a dangerous weapon not to mention carrying one on your person.
The other part of this that I don’t understand is where it says that your in trouble for possessing anything that looks like a firearm. What does that mean? Are they talking about the toy guns that look like real guns? If they are that is just dumb. If the gang banger is dumb enough to take a toy gun to a fight I say that is Darwinism and let it work it’s self out. Does it mean they can’t buy one of those novelty cigarette lighters that shoot a little flame out the barrel when you pull the trigger. Again I don’t think they will be buying those to take to the next throw down in the alley, if they do the problem will probably fizzle out because the rival gang will fall on the ground laughing at him therefore making for an easy get away.
Could our elected officials please get real! This is nothing but a bull poo feel good law that is a knee jerk reaction to recent gang problems in our state. This will do nothing but make people in their districts think they are doing something about the problem, but they are not. We do have a rising serious gang problem and something needs to be done but I think the first thing they should try is enforcing the existing laws and take it from there. Senate Bill 28 is not the answer to our problem.