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- Alan Gottlieb
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- Dan Satterberg
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has joined forces with King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg to send a “wake up call” to illegally-armed juvenile thugs in Washington State.
The effort seeks to toughen juvenile court standards, and surprisingly it also has the support of the Evergreen State’s gun prohibition lobby, Washington Ceasefire. They all appeared together at a press conference held at Satterberg’s office in Seattle to announce the move.
The Bellevue-based group was approached by Satterberg more than two months ago and quickly decided to support his effort.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb stated, “His proposed changes in the law will have no bearing on the rights of legally-armed adults including more than 384,000 citizens who are now licensed to carry concealed in Washington, or the growing number of citizens who openly carry.”
“In our discussion with Dan,” Gottlieb told TGM, “we were assured that this measure will not prevent juveniles and teens from lawfully using or possessing firearms for hunting, recreational shooting, competition or any other legitimate purpose.”
Getting tough on criminals is nothing new for CCRKBA, Gottlieb noted. The gun rights organization that championed Three Strikes and You’re Out, and Hard Time for Armed Crime laws in the 1990s, has long held that cracking down on armed criminals instead of trying to push more gun control proposals onto the shoulders of law-abiding citizens is the way to reduce crime.
The announcement came after a weekend of record gun sales, which also may have an effect on crime rates. The National Shooting Sports Foundation has noted that during a period when firearm sales have skyrocketed, national violent crime rates have fallen.
Satterberg estimated that this effort will cost less than $1 million. He enlisted the help of State Sen. Adam Kline and State Rep. Chris Hurst, to introduce a bill in January. Kline is a hardline anti-gunner, and chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
According to Satterberg, if the law could be strengthened to put second-time offenders in detention for 15 weeks, it might discourage them from carrying guns. In a handout to the press, Satterberg outlined the problem that now exists under Washington’s juvenile court system.
Under current law a juvenile must be convicted of five felonies before a conviction for “Unlawful Possession of a Firearm in the Second Degree” results in a sentence at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (JRA) of 15 to 36 weeks,” he explained in a handout.
“Current law calls for a mandatory 10 day sentence for the first four convictions for UPFA second degree,” he explained. “Numerous sentencing alternatives exist however, that can make the mandatory 10 day sentence meaningless. Current Washington state law sends a strong message to juveniles that carrying a gun is no big deal.”
Satterberg proposes the following changes:
- Juveniles convicted of illegal gun possession will have to serve a mandatory 10 day sentence on their first conviction. Juveniles who have already been convicted of a felony or who are convicted a second time of illegal gun possession will be sent to JRA to serve a sentence of 15 to 36 weeks.
- Eliminate sentencing alternatives that permit juveniles to escape serving the mandatory 10 day sentence called for under current law on their first illegal gun possession conviction.
- Develop a gun violence education curriculum for juvenile offenders serving sentences for illegal gun possession that offers a realistic lesson on the medical and legal consequences of carrying and using firearms.
“Juvenile thugs who shoot up neighborhoods, injuring or killing innocent bystanders, or who illegally carry guns as an adjunct to their involvement in other criminal activity are no friends of ours, and vice versa,” Gottlieb said.
Seattle experienced a spike in homicides during the first half of 2012. Numerous shooting incidents involving teens with guns that could not legally carry have been reported, and one burst of gunfire this past summer caught a motorist in the street. He was fatally wounded with his children and parents in the car, en-route to a family vacation.
Satterberg acknowledged that this proposed change may put fewer than 100 second-time offenders in extended lockup, but for him, it is a starting point.
The touch work for Kline and Hurst begins now with budget misers in Olympia. Washington has had major budget problems and money is extremely tight.
