this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
93 points (95.1% liked)

World News

39011 readers
2743 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] tal@lemmy.today 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Hagerich was one of several Americans facing a potential mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison on ammunition charges in Turks and Caicos.

goes looking for the actual law

So, this appears to be the relevant section of the criminal code. I'm not sure how they got to 12 years. But there are different rules that take into account intent:

https://gov.tc/agc/component/edocman/18-09-firearms-ordinance-2/viewdocument/1232?Itemid=

Here's the one I believe is applicable with intent to injure, which has a ten year minimum:

Penalty for possessing firearms with intent to injure

  1. Any person who has in his possession any firearm or ammunition with intent by means thereof to endanger life or cause injury to property, or to enable any other person by means thereof to endanger life or cause injury to property, whether any injury to person or property has been caused or not, commits an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment to a mandatory term of imprisonment of not less than ten years with a maximum term of imprisonment for life and a fine without limit. (Substituted by Ord. 28 of 2010 and Amended by Ord. 8 of 2018)

Here's the one without intent to injure, just possession, which has a seven year minimum:

Firearm to be licensed

  1. (1) No person (other than a licensed gunsmith in the course of his trade) shall keep, carry, discharge or use any firearm or ammunition unless he is the holder of a firearm licence with respect to such firearm, or in case of ammunition he is the holder of a licence for a firearm which takes that ammunition. (2) No person licensed under subsection (1) shall keep a greater number of ammunition than is specified in his licence. (3) A person who contravenes subsection (1) or (2) commits an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term of not less than seven years but not exceeding fifteen years and a fine without limit. (Amended by Ords. 28 of 2010 and 8 of 2018)

I don't think that the issue was that the legislators didn't account for intent to cause harm.

That being said, I also do think that it's plausible that the legislators were operating under the assumption that anyone in-country couldn't have gotten ahold of any ammunition other than via going way out of their way to do it, whereas if someone's flying in from where it's everywhere, it's a lot easier to inadvertently wind up with it.

I don't think that the law is, in its present form, a good idea, though. I mean, even if you consider purely-domestic cases, there have to be cases where someone can accidentally wind up with ammunition. Okay, maybe we place an onus on international travelers to specially check their luggage. But, what happens if, I don't know, some cop screws up and leaves a magazine somewhere? Someone doesn't notice the thing, and bundles it up with some other stuff to a lost-and-found. That looks to be sufficient to violate the law as it stands, but I can't imagine that it's be reasonable for every person to inspect everything they're picking up with a seven year minimum sentence at stake. The only person there who I think could reasonably have acted differently would have been the cop, but the law would punish random-lost-and-found guy.

[–] specialdealer@lemm.ee 0 points 5 months ago

Thank you for your reply and maintaining my faith that intelligent life still posts on Lemmy.