By: Sen. Jeff Sessions
While President Obama lectures the nation on gun violence, and seeks to limit law-abiding Americans’ exercise of their constitutional rights, his Administration’s policies have let loose thousands of dangerous criminals onto America’s streets.
The proven method for saving the lives of innocent Americans is not disarming them. The proven method for saving the lives of innocent Americans is to arrest, prosecute, convict and jail criminal offenders, especially armed career criminals illegally using guns. This is the way to reduce gun violence.
Instead, the President has presided over a stunning drop in the prosecution of gun crimes. There were a mere 6,002 convictions for gun crimes in 2015, a decrease of more than one-third from just ten years ago.
In the very communities most racked by gang violence, the President has also helped to replenish the ranks of the perpetrators by ordering federal prosecutors to ignore congressionally-mandated minimum sentences for drug trafficking. Those engaging in drug-trafficking are some of the most dangerous, violent and ruthless criminals in America. Indeed, in this type of illegal enterprise, the barrel of a gun is the preferred collection and enforcement tool.
Former Attorney General Holder flatly stated that ‘last year, federal prosecutors went from seeking a mandatory minimum penalty in 2 out of every 3 drug trafficking cases, to doing so in 1 out of 2. This represents the lowest rate on record.’
With the full support of the Obama Justice Department, the Sentencing Commission has reduced the sentencing guidelines for all drug traffickers, including those currently in prison, resulting in the early release of over 46,000 convicted felons. Predictably, we are already seeing those released commit violent crimes. This should come as no surprise given the 77 percent recidivism rate for recently-released criminals, as reported by the Department of Justice itself.
Respected criminologist Matt DeLisi of Iowa State University testified before Congress that “releasing 1 percent of the current [federal prison] population would result in approximately 32,850 additional murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, and incidents of arson.” That means the unprecedented and dramatic 11 percent drop in the federal prison population that has already occurred under the policies of this President could result in another 361,350 murders, rapes, robberies, and other serious crimes. And yet the President wants legislation to permanently and substantially relax criminal sentencing.
Every day, lax sentencing costs lives. Tyrone Howard, a gang member with 28 arrests and 2 prison sentences for drug crimes, was convicted for another serious drug crime but sent to a diversion program instead of jail. He then murdered NYPD officer Randolph Holder. Raleigh Sizemore, convicted of operating a meth lab, was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was paroled after just three years’ time. He then executed Richmond, Kentucky police officer Daniel Ellis with a gunshot to the head.
Consider the murder of Kate Steinle, the young woman who died in her father’s arms because a 5-time deported illegal alien was roaming free in a sanctuary city aided and abetted by the Administration’s refusal to enforce our immigration laws. Or consider the countless other Americans gunned down by criminal aliens who should never have been allowed into the country in the first place. In just the last three years, ICE encountered and then let go 235,000 criminal aliens, taking no action to remove them. Yet the victims of their crimes, and their demands for justice, are not heard in the Oval Office.
How many thousands of lives would be saved if we enforced our immigration laws, our guns laws, and our drug laws? Public safety is not being held hostage by the “gun lobby,” but by the open borders lobby and the anti-law enforcement lobby.
Crime is rising across the nation. Homicides are surging. Violent crime is increasing. And the Administration is acting to make it harder for law-abiding Americans to purchase guns while freeing some of the most dangerous felons in the world. This record makes it clear that the Administration is far more focused on rolling back enforcement of the law and reducing prison populations, than protecting the American people from crime and violence.
Senator Jeff Sessions is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest
