Republican-NRA-led drug war, mandatory minimum sentences, and handguns

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 * Share link: www.cannabis.wikia.com/nra
 * See also: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate.
 * See: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead. Democrats follow. Everybody pays.

More cops, more guns, more jails!

Whatever good the NRA has done is far outweighed by its part in creating an incarceration nation. See Portal:Drug war charts and maps. See Wikipedia: Mandatory minimum sentencing, and Two and Three Strikes laws. On the day of the Mayan apocalypse, Dec. 21, 2012, NRA-trained brownshirts marched in: "LaPierre announced that former Rep. Asa Hutchinson [ex-DEA chief], R-Ark., will lead an NRA program that will develop a model security plan for schools that relies on armed volunteers." Trained by the NRA. NRA Press Conference: Wayne LaPierre Calls For Armed Police Officers At Every School. Huffington Post, Dec. 21, 2012.

NRA history of CrimeStrike and mandatory minimums
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By the way, the "truth-in-sentencing" (mandatory minimum sentencing) and "Two and Three Strikes" laws apply to nonviolent criminals too. And the NRA has often demonized drugs. The NRA must not be proud of their CrimeStrike program. At the time of this writing, the NRA website (nra.org) does not mention CrimeStrike. See this search of their website for "CrimeStrike". Fortunately, Google does not let them slither away:


 * Google Books: "CrimeStrike".
 * Google Scholar: "CrimeStrike".

Showing Holes. By Peter H. Stone. Mother Jones. January/February 1994 Issue. Quote from article (emphasis added):
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 * The NRA also made the major blunder of taking on Joseph McNamara, the well-known former head of the San Jose, California, police department. The NRA ran an ad, headlined "So You Want Legalized Drugs in America?", that distorted McNamara's beliefs and angered many law enforcement officials.

CrimeStrike, which combines state lobbying with national advertising and direct-mail blitzes, appears to have been launched partly to woo back the police community. It is also aimed at diverting public attention from gun-control measures and focusing it on NRA-backed campaigns to pass tougher sentencing laws and build more prisons in several states. This past election season, CrimeStrike succeeded in pushing initiatives through in Washington and Texas. NRA and Charlton Heston Criticize Safety Valve. DRCNet Activist Guide, Issue: #2, August 1994. Quote (emphasis added):
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 * In a highly dishonest advertisement by the National Rifle Association on CNN last Tuesday, actor Charlton Heston criticized the Crime Bill, claiming that it would let 10,000 drug dealers back out on the streets.
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The NRA Strikes Back. By Chris Bryson, In These Times, March 17, 1997, pp. 18-19. Click "full page" link for full-size pages. Quote (emphasis added):
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 * the NRA formed CrimeStrike in 1991 as a division of its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action. ... CrimeStrike logged its first victory in November 1993 when it backed Washington state's "Three Strikes and You're Out" initiative, the nation's first. ... That success was rapidly followed by similar victories in California and Virginia, where NRA lobbyists again provided essential money and manpower to "three strikes" campaigns. In Virginia and Mississippi, according to CrimeStrike state legislative affairs director Susan Misiora, the NRA was "instrumental" in passing truth-in-sentencing measures which lengthened average prison sentences.
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When Misery Means Profit: Immigration Enforcement, the Prison Industry and ALEC. 2011 article by AZ resists ALEC. See American Legislative Exchange Council. Article quote (emphasis added):
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 * In the early 1990s, the NRA, an ALEC member, initiated a campaign called CrimeStrike designed to win passage of ALEC’s “Truth in Sentencing Act” and “Habitual Violent Offender Incarceration Act” in state legislatures. Between 1993 and 1995, truth-in-sentencing laws were adopted by twenty states and by 1998 ALEC could declare victory as truth-in-sentencing bills had become law in 40 states.  In addition, 25 states now have three-strikes laws similar to ALEC’s model legislation.  Of course, the result of this legislation is predicable and well documented: during the 1990s, prison construction boomed, the incarceration rate doubled driven by a prison population expansion of one-half million people and private jailers secured lucrative new contracts to house thousands of inmates from overcrowded public facilities.
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Not for Praise, but for Principle. August 18, 1995. An address to the 17th Annual NRA National Shooting Coaches and Instructors Conference. By Thomas C. Wyld, Director, PR & Communications, National Rifle Association. Institute for Legislative Action. Fairfax, Virginia. Quote (emphasis added):
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 * That's why, in the first six months of this year alone, NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, through its CrimeStrike Division, has worked toward criminal justice reform and victims' rights in fifteen states -- from "Three Strikes You're Out" in Vermont to the "Hard Time for Armed Crime" Initiative in Washington state. Think about that. Criminal justice reform. And victims' rights. In fifteen states. In just six months. By one citizens' group. Yours. The National Rifle Association. NRA is working for -- and passing -- Two and Three Strikes laws to ensure that repeat offenders are kept behind bars for life. NRA is working for -- and passing -- truth-in-sentencing to require violent criminals to serve eighty-five percent of sentences imposed.
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Corporate Con Game. June 21, 2010. By Beau Hodai, In These Times. Quote (emphasis added):


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 * In the early '90s, the ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force was co-chaired by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's largest private prison company. During those years, the National Rifle Association (NRA), another task force member (and the current task force co-chair), initiated a campaign to introduce two pieces of ALEC-inspired legislation at the state and federal level: the so-called "truth-in-sentencing" and "three-strikes-you're-out" laws. Truth-in-sentencing called for all violent offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences before being eligible for release. Three strikes called for mandatory life imprisonment for a third felony conviction. The NRA campaign, dubbed "CrimeStrike,"...
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10 Myths of Gun Control. March 1996, NRA Institute for Legislative Action. Quote (emphasis added):


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 * NRA is meeting that challenge with its CrimeStrike division, established to advance real solutions to the crime problem while protecting the rights of all honest citizens. Working in states across the nation, CrimeStrike has worked for passage of "truth in sentencing laws" which require that criminals actually serve at least 85% of time sentenced, "Victim's Bill of Rights" constitutional amendments, and "Three Strikes You're Out" laws.
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USA versus Canada and Europe. Handguns equal high murder rate
Return to top. Above graphic. See: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence : Facts. See Brady Campaign. The U.S. stats for shootings are startling: Gun Death and Injury Stat Sheet, 2008-2009.

Canada has a much lower homicide rate than its neighbor to the south, the USA.

In 2005 almost 3% of households in Canada possessed handguns, compared to 18% of U.S. households that possessed handguns.

In 2011, 72% of the 8,583 homicides committed using firearms in the United States were committed using handguns.

Nearly all of Western Europe bans or severely restricts handguns. Rifles and shotguns are legal to own. The murder rates are much lower than in the USA.

In 2011 34% of adults in the United States personally owned a gun; 46% of adult men, and 23% of adult women. In 2011 47% of the adult U.S. population lived in households with guns.

For more info on the data in the above paragraphs see:
 * Self-Reported Gun Ownership in U.S. Is Highest Since 1993. By Lydia Saad. October 26, 2011. Gallup report.
 * Table 18 on page 279 of Criminal Victimisation in International Perspective, by the International Crime Victims Survey. Table 18: Ownership of firearms and handguns in countries and main cities (percentages). 1989-2005 ICVS and 2005 EU ICS.
 * Expanded Homicide Data Table 8 - Murder Victims by Weapon, 2007-2011. By the FBI (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation).
 * See Wikipedia:
 * List of countries by intentional homicide rate.
 * List of countries by firearm-related death rate.
 * Gun politics and Gun politics in Canada.
 * Gun politics in the United States.

High-capacity gun magazines and clips
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 * Magazine (firearms).
 * David Gregory Held Up A High-Capacity Magazine To See If The Head Of The NRA Would Budge On Anything. By Brett LoGiurato. Dec. 23, 2012. Business Insider.
 * NRA Chief Calls For National Database Of The Mentally Ill And Says: If You Want To Call Me Crazy, Then Call Me Crazy. By Brett LoGiurato. Dec. 23, 2012. Business Insider.
 * Why We Must Ban High-Capacity Gun Magazines. By Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy. April 6, 2011. Huffington Post.

Shoulda Robbed a Bank
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More links
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 * NRA's Mandatory Minimum Sentencing campaigns. National Rifle Association.
 * Mechanism of fascism in the USA. Incarceration NRA.
 * Chart. U.S. Federal Mandatory-Minimum Drug Sentences. Non-violent possession only. Drug War concentration camps.

Truth in sentencing:
 * Google search: truth in sentencing.
 * Truth in Sentencing Laws | eHow.com.

Skyrocketing costs:
 * GUEST OPINION: Elderly prisoners pose little risk, big cost - Fall River, MA - The Herald News.

Canada:
 * Video. "Pot & Politics. Chris Bennett at Occupy Vancouver!" The Harperization of the Drug War in Canada. Stephen Harper's slavish imitation of the U.S. drug war and "truth in sentencing".

Incarceration rates worldwide
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Breaking the Taboo
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Cost of drug war
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 * Cost of U.S. drug war:

Cannabis is safer
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 * Share link: www.cannabis.wikia.com/safer

Categories
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