During last night’s Republican presidential debate, former Vice President Mike Pence had a startling answer to a question about what he would do to reduce gun violence.
“I am sick and tired of these mass shootings happening in the United States of America,” said Pence. “And if I’m president of the United States, I’m going to go to the Congress of the United States, and we’re going to pass a federal expedited death penalty for anyone involved in a mass shooting so that they will meet their fate in months, not years. It is unconscionable that the Parkland shooter…is actually going to spend the rest of his life behind bars in Florida. That’s not justice. We have to mete out justice and send a message to these would-be killers that you are not going to live out your days behind bars. You’re going to meet justice.”
This plan is not just unlikely to reduce mass shootings; it would leave lots of accused criminals without important procedural protections. While “mass shooting” doesn’t have a set legal definition, one common definition puts it as any shooting with at least four victims, including people who were injured rather than killed. By that metric, over 3,500 mass shootings occurred from 2015 to 2022. Roughly 95 percent of these shootings resulted in fewer than four deaths, according to Everytown for Gun Safety’s data. That includes a lot of crimes that do not look like Parkland—crimes in which there could be serious doubts about whether the accused is in fact guilty.
Keep reading
Hellbound and Down 
You must be logged in to post a comment.