I've had the gun pointed at me by someone who is very intent on using it, I understand. But it doesn't mean you become some fascist nutjob.
And the court system
Certain people have no human comapssion, so you give criminals no chance to redeem themselves and you talk about casually executing people? You have no right to claim to be a christian with that mindset. You have no right to mention the founding fathers who believed in inherent human decency when you talk about casually locking people up for life.
Getting kinda personal with the ad-homs there, aren't you?
Again, you are mischaracterizing my position. I'm not talking about all criminals; I'm not even talking about all violent criminals. I'm talking about violent criminals who commit certain types of crimes, which I listed, that put them "beyond the pale of re-acceptance to society" in my opinion.
There is nothing
casual about my attitude. I was peripherally involved in a State execution about a decade ago. I did more than a little bit of soul-searching over it, and came to the conclusion that the execution of the man in question for his crime was justice, and that justice needed to be served. I have no problem with executing premeditated murderers, murderers who kill in the commission of a robbery or burglary, forcible rapists, child abusers and similar scum-of-the-earth.
Before you accuse me of being lacking in Christianity, maybe you should educate yourself about Christian principles:
Exodus 21:12 "Whosoever smite a man so that he die, shall surely be put to death."
Since that's OT, here's some NT to go along with it:
Romans 13:3-4 "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to [execute] wrath upon him that doeth evil. "
Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.
The 272,111 offenders discharged in 1994 accounted for nearly 4,877,000 arrest charges over their recorded careers.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Criminal Offenders Statistics
TRENDS, TRAITS, AND OBSERVATIONS OF ALL OFFENDERS
Previous studies have found that an offender’s criminal past is a compelling indicator of future
recidivism. These findings are validated by the observations of Wisconsin offenders analyzed
for this report. Of adult offenders sentenced to DOC multiple times, those with 1,2,3,4, and 5
prior offenses commit another offense 39%, 50%, 55%, 57%, and 58% of the time respectively.
This re-offending percentage continues to increase with the number of priors.
Also consistent with previous studies, the Wisconsin statistics documented herein demonstrate
that younger offenders recidivate at a rate much higher than older offenders. Roughly half of all
offenses committed by DOC sentenced recidivists were ages 18 through 23. Other Wisconsin
findings consistent with previous studies include the recidivism rates for gender and race. As
expected, male recidivists in Wisconsin re-offended and are re-sentenced to DOC more often
than females (38% versus 27%). American Indian and Black offenders topped the list of
percent recidivating, followed by Hispanics, Whites, and Asian/Pacific Islanders.
.....
Studying individual
offender groups results in the identification of traits unique to those offender groups. For
example, the traits of robbers include:
• Robbers commit more offenses per offender than other offenders.
• Offenses committed by robbers are in general more severe than other offenders (70%
felonies for robbers versus 35% felonies for other offenders).
• Robbers recidivate at a much higher rate than other offenders (65% versus 35%).
• Sentencing robbers may require a longer term view since robbers have criminal careers
that span a long period of time.
• Robbers are younger than other offenders. Recidivistic robbers are younger than
robbers who do not recidivate.
• There is no distinguishable point at which robbers “age out.”
• The recidivism rate of female robbers is much higher than other female offenders (55%
versus 26%).
...
• Studies of the criminal histories of robbers suggest that there are in some cases
identifiable progressions of offenses from retail theft to theft to burglary to robbery.
The point being that we're putting
too many people back on the street, after committing a serious violent felony, who
are going to do it again.
When we come up with a fool-proof mind-probe that determines accurately which criminals offenders are likely to commit further serious crime and which aren't, then being a little more flexible might be possible. Until then,
too many innocents are dying because we let repeat violent felons out of prison.
If we did it my way, there is no question that
many lives would be saved.
Aren't you part of the crowd that, on gun control issues, always yells "If it saves one child's life it is worth it!"
Well, this would save lots of lives.
G.