ICYMI: Publishers Postions

Senator Marsha Blackburn and Congressman David Kustoff are sponsoring a bill that, if passed, will require 15-year mandatory sentences on those individuals who have three or more serious felonies and are subsequently found guilty of illegal firearm possession.  The legislation has been christened the “Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act” and reconfigures a “three strikes” law passed in 1984.  That same act saw parts of it struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. Senator Blackburn is cosponsoring the bill in the Senate with Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas.  The bill has won a strong endorsement from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.

Senator Blackburn stated, “Violent, repeat offenders have no business being back on our streets.”  That was seconded by Congressman Kustoff, who said, “Career criminals are a danger to our citizens and our communities.”

Amen!  For too long, the emphasis by Democrats in this country has been on a policy of “restoration” and conciliation with too many criminals who have been relabeled as victims because of their race or identification, while ignoring their crime.  It is akin to condemning the Israeli government for bombing strikes in Gaza while ignoring the October 7 attack, which was premeditated and deliberate, against Israeli civilians.  The Left in this country blatantly ignores laws it disagrees with and encourages others to do the same.  Anyone the Left identifies as an “oppressor” evidently deserves any terrible thing and the perpetrator of the crime, irrespective of how brutal, is excused.  Another example is the worshipful attitude of many on the Left for Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of a health insurance executive who was a husband and a father.

Skrmetti praised the Blackburn-Kustoff Bill as a “common-sense approach” to removing “violent criminals off our streets.”

It is a good bill, in the best interests of the law-abiding, hardworking people of this country, and we hope the Congress will pass it quickly.