Source: United States Senator for Arkansas Tom Cotton
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James Arnold or Mary Collins Atkinson (202) 224-2353
June 9, 2022
Cotton, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Reduce Gun Violence
Washington, D.C. — Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), John Thune (R-South Dakota) Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), and Todd Young (R-Indiana) introduced the Stop Gun Criminals Act, legislation to increase penalties for felons who illegally possess or use firearms. Text of the bill may be found here.
“Violent felons commit the vast majority of gun crimes and should be held accountable for their actions. Instead of releasing criminals onto the streets to commit more crime, our bill will establish mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders,” said Cotton.
The Stop Gun Criminals Act would:
· Set a minimum sentence of five years for illegally possessing a gun.
· Increase the mandatory minimum sentence for serious repeat felons (defined as criminals with at least three prior convictions for crimes that are punishable by 10 years or longer) if they use a gun in the commission of more crimes, increasing the minimum from five years to seven years.
o For such criminals who brandish the gun during the crime, the minimum would increase from seven years to 10 years.
o For such criminals who actually fire their weapon during the crime, the minimum would increase from 10 years to 15 years.
· Make a technical correction to remove the “residual clause” from the Armed Career Criminal Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015 for being unconstitutionally vague.
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