[This article originally appeared as "Is the 'Crime' Worth the Time?", American Rifleman, October, 1992] Disproportionate Punishments In 1989, California adopted a Draconian measure known as the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act. Under its provisions, a variety of firearms were prohibited for future sale, and all existing ones were required to be registered. In spite of massive publicity, large numbers of Californians remain unaware of the law, or at least of the provisions prohibiting sale. Over the last two years, I have seen a number of newspaper classified ads offering these weapons for sale. When I called the sellers to warn them about the law, all were genuinely surprised to learn that what they were doing was against the law -- and were even more shocked to find out what sort of punishment awaited them, if convicted. In one case, the owner wasn't even interested in guns--a Colt AR-15 had been given to him in settlement of a debt. It is sometimes asserted that the gun prohibitionists are more interested in banning guns, than in punishing violent crime. My recent study of the California Penal Code strongly supports this understanding. I picked a number of common crimes that are usually considered serious1, and prepared a table of the minimum sentences for which a person convicted of each crime can be sentenced to either a county jail or state prison: P.C. crime minimum section sentence (months) 243(a) battery 0 243(b) battery against peace officer, process 0 server, or other public safety provider 243(c) battery against peace officer, process 0 server, with injury 243(d) battery with serious bodily injury 0 243(e) battery against former spouse, 0 fiancée, or dating partner 243.4(a) sexual battery 0 (b) 245(a)(1) assault with a deadly weapon (not a 0 gun) 12220 possession or sale of a machinegun 0 12280(b) possession of unregistered assault 0 weapon except at range or home 12280(b) unregistered possession of an assault 0 weapon (2nd offense) 12303 possession of destructive device 0 (grenades, Molotov cocktails) 245(a)(2) assault with a deadly weapon (gun) 6 246 firing a gun at an occupied dwelling, 6 building, motor vehicle, or aircraft 193 drunk driving vehicular manslaughter 16 193 involuntary manslaughter 24 204 mayhem 24 213 2nd degree robbery 24 220 assault with intent to commit mayhem, 24 rape, sodomy, or oral copulation 244 assault with caustic chemicals 24 193 voluntary manslaughter 36 208(a) kidnapping 36 213 1st degree robbery 36 245(b) assault with a deadly weapon (semiauto 36 rifle) 245(c) assault with a deadly weapon (not a 36 gun) on a peace officer 264 rape 36 245(a)(3 assault with a deadly weapon (machine 48 ) gun) 245(d)(1 assault with a deadly weapon (gun) on 48 ) a peace officer 12280(a) sale of an assault weapon 48 208(b) kidnapping (victim under 14) 60 245(d)(2) assault with a deadly weapon (semiauto 60 rifle) on a peace officer 245(d)(3) assault with a deadly weapon (machine 72 gun) on a peace officer 190 2nd degree murder[1] 180 190 1st degree murder 300 The violent crimes (rape, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, drunk driving vehicular manslaughter) have some of the shortest minimum sentences. The minimum sentence for rape (PC 264) is only three years. Get drunk and kill someone with a car (PC 193), and the minimum sentence is 16 months. Assault with a deadly weapon other than a gun (PC 245(a)(1)) has no minimum sentence. On the other hand, some crimes where there is no victim are severely punished. Sell an assault rifle to a law-abiding citizen (PC 12280(a)), and the minimum sentence is four years. In fact, of the crimes listed above, only five had more serious minimum sentences: murder (first and second degree), kidnapping someone under 14, and two different variants of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. Even by the tortured logic of the gun prohibitionists, the odds of there ever being a victim is less than 1/2 of 1% (the vast majority of assault rifles, like the vast majority of other firearms, are never used criminally). The California Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that this crime is a more serious offense than rape, robbery, or manslaughter -- crimes that, in each and every case, have a clearly identifiable victim who bleeds, who suffers, who cries, and perhaps, someone who dies. Nor does this appear to be an oversight -- Assemblywoman Carol Bentley's bill to make rape a serious crime has languished, while "technical corrections" to the fatally flawed Roberti- Roos bill sailed through the Legislature, and were signed into law. Even accepting the logic of the gun prohibitionists, why is the sale of a Colt AR-15 a far more serious punishment than sale of a machine gun, or possession of a functional hand grenade? By any honest measure, the punishments created by the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act are disproportionate to the severity of the crime. The gun prohibitionists that control California's Legislature, consider the sale of a gun a far more serious crime than rape, manslaughter, mayhem, and drunk drivers killing people. Criminals who use a gun in the commission of a violent crime deserve the fullest punishment of the law. It might even be argued, in a twisted, warped sort of way, that a person who sells a gun is making a crime possible; but to hold that the sale of a gun should be punished more severely than manslaughter, rape, or mayhem, is madness. ------ Clayton Cramer is a software engineer with a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in Petaluma, California. His first book, By The Dim And Flaring Lamps: The Civil War Diary of Samuel McIlvaine, was published by Library Research Associates, Inc., in 1990. _______________________________ [1] Some California readers, and those who are avid fans of television police shows set in California, will notice that the Penal Code section numbers seem unfamiliar. Crimes are frequently defined in one section of the California Penal Code, and the punishment specified in a following section. For example, P.C. 187 defines the crime of murder, but the punishment is prescribed in P.C. 190.