A look at Richmond, Virginia provides an answer. In a recent Time magazine article, Elaine Shannon points out that a few years back, Richmond had the second highest homicide rate in the country. Then U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey teamed up with Richmond s Police Chief Jerry Oliver. Operation Exile significantly reduced armed crime by targeting the criminals, not the guns. Murders dropped from 140 in 1997 to 94 in 1998 and 32 for the first six months of 1999.
Armed robberies shows a similar decline.
And Operation Exile has won long prison sentences for 279 gun-carrying criminals. When Richmond cops find a gun on a drug dealer, convicted felon or suspect in a violent crime, they get a mandatory sentence of at least five years without parole. The sentence is even longer for repeated or aggravated offenses. The criminals get the message and crime is down in Richmond, Virginia. Seems to me that s how to fight crime.