15Jun

    #PrayforOrlando Exploring Current Gun Laws in the US

    June 15, 2016 by

     

    The shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was a terrible tragedy that took the lives of 49 innocent people, while another 53 victims were wounded. This brutal act was committed by a lone gunman named Omar Marteen. The incident has caused the exploration of current gun laws in the US. Because of the nightclub shooting and other tragedies in Orlando that occurred around the same time, some people asked how much more the City of Orlando could take. A number of individuals were moved to pray by #PrayForOrlando. There is much debate about whether or not better gun control laws would prevent this type of tragedy.

    Days prior to the shooting, Mateen purchased the Sig Sauer .223 semi-automatic rifle and Glock 17 from a Florida gun store. The purchases were legally made on separate occasions. Assault weapons are often criticized for the ability they give shooters to shoot faster and produce higher death tolls. A federal ban against assault weapons expired in 2004. Sales for these weapons increase whenever there is a new legislative push to restrict them from being sold. According to Derek Byrd, a Sarasota, Florida based lawyer, there is no law that would have prevented the Orlando shooter.

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    The Orlando shooting sparked new gun control language debates prompting Senator Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats to speak out. Hillary Clinton has historically been outspoken against the National Rifle Association (NRA). Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy blamed Congress for the mass shootings, because of its failure to enact stricter gun control measures.

    Sanders said, “We should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people. We have got to do everything that we can on top of that to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them, criminals, people who are mentally ill. So that struggles continues.” Former US Senate candidate, Patrick Murphy, joined Christine Leinonen, who is the mother of one of the victims, in giving a speech before the Democratic National Convention about “common sense” gun measures.

    03Feb

    Florida Needs to Fix it’s Death Penalty Law

    February 3, 2016 by

    The death penalty has caused controversy since it was first made a legal possibility and this controversy has only increased every year as more and more people come out against it. While the death penalty is legal under federal law, various states have made it illegal over time. It is currently legal in 32 states with prisoners in 35 states currently on death row (the death penalty is illegal in Connecticut, Maryland, and New Mexico but isn’t retroactive so prisoners who were on death row will still be executed). Now it seems as though the Supreme Court is being called in to look at certain state’s death penalty laws.

    Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the way Florida handed down its death penalty rulings is unconstitutional and needed to be changed. This is a big deal for a number of reasons, one of which is that Florida currently has one of the country’s most crowded death row systems and seems to hand out the death penalty with more ease than other states in which it’s legal. With the Florida lawmaking session ending in six weeks and prosecutions for cases that have capital punishment as a possible sentence currently stalled, lawmakers in Florida are rushing to create new legislation that will answer the concerns of the court while simultaneously keeping constituents happy.

    Up until now, Florida’s death penalty only required a simple majority of a 12-person jury to recommend a death sentence to a judge who would then decide on the punishment — most other states require unanimous jury recommendations. With the 2nd largest number of inmates on death row (behind only California) but the highest execution rate in the country, Florida’s court system is now in turmoil as it tries to figure out a fix. The Supreme Court ruled that the current law gave too much power to judges and not enough to juries, flying in the face of the Sixth Amendment and becoming unconstitutional in the process. While there is no set fix to the ruling yet, it will be interesting to see whether the laws change on a grand scale or simply on a smaller scale targeted to this specific ruling.

    If you’d like to read more, the link is here.