GOP lawmaker pitches gun strategy
Delegate believes measure could help criminals step toward rehabilitation
As the Democratic governor and GOP legislators square off for a repeat of the usual gun legislation at next month’s post-Virginia Beach mass shooting special session, one Peninsula lawmaker wants to float an entirely new idea.
Del. David Yancey, R-Newport News, says that when he talks to police and prosecutors about guns, they tell him they need more tools to crack down on gun-theft rings and the black market in stolen firearms.
And one tool they told him that they wish they had is one federal law enforcement agencies have used for seven decades. It is the power to ask judges to cut convicts’ sentences if, once in prison, those offenders give police information needed to bring drug-smugglers, gun-runners and other organized criminals to justice.
“I think this could help,” Yancey said, adding that in his experience, most gun crime in Newport News and many other communities involves stolen weapons.
“You’ll see someone crashing a car into a pawnshop and clean out all the guns, then those guns end up on the street,” he said.
“When I coach rugby, I’ve got kids who say: ‘Look coach, I know where to get guns,’ ” he added.
Yancey believes a state version of the federal procedure — it’s called Rule 35 — would encourage prisoners to tell police if they know who has stockpiles of stolen guns for sale.
Although gun legislation usually brings partisan stand-offs in the Republican-majority General Assembly, with gun control measures dying in committee and gun-rights bills being vetoed by two consecutive Democratic governors, Yancey thinks his proposal might have a chance in the special session.
He doesn’t think of the measure as giving criminals a break, but as a step toward rehabilitation for those who want to try.
The average time federal offenders serve after a Rule 35 sentence reduction is just under seven years, according to a recent U.S. Sentencing Commission study. On average, Rule 35 results in a 39% reduction in the length of a sentence, the federal agency found.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia grants the most Rule 35 sentence reductions, or some 1,645 out of a national total of 10,811 between 2009 and 2014, the study found.
Though such a rule wouldn’t have prevented a gunman from killing a dozen people in a Virginia Beach municipal building last month, Yancey said it would be a way of addressing gun violence that doesn’t infringe anyone’s Second Amendment rights. The right to bear arms doesn’t include the right to steal guns or possess a stolen weapon, he noted.
It’s also in line with legislation enacted last year that allows judges to reduce sentences for offenders who provide a lot of help to an investigation or prosecution of drug dealing.
Yancey’s proposal would allow a judge to revise a sentence after the offender has already started serving it.
His concern with stolen weapons led him last year to introduce a bill that would have set a series of mandatory minimum sentences for stealing guns with the intention of selling them, receiving or selling stolen firearms, or using stolen guns in a crime. The bill died in committee.
A Republican who represents a Democratic-leaning district, Yancey has broken with many of his GOP colleagues by speaking out for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and for expansion of Medicaid during the past General Assembly session.
The special session called by Gov. Ralph Northam will begin July 9. The governor has said he’ll veto any bills imposing new mandatory minimum sentences. And Republicans have said they won’t approve any gun control measures.
“You’ll see someone crashing a car into a pawn shop and clean out all the guns ... When I coach rugby, I’ve got kids who say: ‘Look coach, I know where to get guns.’ ”
— Del. David Yancey