State lawmakers work to crack down on gun-toting kids
Feb 13, 2013, 8:05 AM | Updated: 8:52 am
Under current law, it takes five convictions before a juvenile is sentenced to a 15 week rehabilitation program. State lawmakers want to take that down to two convictions, and some even want first time offenders to spend some time behind bars.
A bill that would crack down on kids caught with guns is moving forward, although with a little less bite.
Under current state law, it takes five convictions before a juvenile offender gets more than a slap on the wrist when they’re caught with a gun.
Bills introduced in the Washington State House and Senate would require a 10-day mandatory sentence for first time juvenile offenders and a 15-week sentence for the second offense.
Republican Representative Brad Klippert of Kennewick successfully lobbied for an amendment to the house version that would remove the required sentence for first time offenders.
“Just simply says that if someone basically has done this by accident and they don’t have a previous conviction, that the judge can use judicial discretion,” Klippert told the House Committee on Judiciary.
The bill retained the 15-week sentence required for a second offense as it passed through committee and moved to the House floor Tuesday.
The vote was not unanimous. Republican Representative Jay Rodne of North Bend was unhappy with how the bill had been changed.
“It does significantly weaken what we thought was a very good underlying bill,” Rodne told the committee. “We’ll continue to work between here and the floor to try to strengthen the bill more in line with what the original bill was trying to achieve.”
The senate version of the bill is still working its way through committee.
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Lack of penalties encouraging young criminals to keep using guns
