If you liked how well "zero tolerance" worked in schools, just think of how nice it will be on a national scale with the ATF running the show with dubyah's blessing.

[url]www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010510/3306248s.htm[/url]
Bush, Ashcroft to announce zero-tolerance for
                gun crimes

                By Judy Keen
                USA TODAY

                WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft will
                announce stepped-up prosecutions of gun crimes at an appearance Monday
                in Philadelphia.

                They are expected to outline a plan for a nationwide crackdown on felons and
                drug traffickers caught with firearms. The program is based on Project Exile,
                which originated in Richmond, Va., in 1997. It was a model for similar
                programs in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia and
                more than a dozen communities, including Philadelphia.

                Project Exile is, in effect, a zero-tolerance policy for gun violations. Cases are
                prosecuted quickly under federal, state or local laws. State and local penalties
                vary. Under federal law, a felon later convicted of gun possession can be
                sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

                The current Justice Department budget includes $75 million to hire more state
                and local prosecutors. Bush and Ashcroft will announce plans to hire 113
                federal prosecutors at a cost of $20 million to work full-time on gun cases.
                Ashcroft also wants to add $153 million in 2002 for programs aimed at
                curtailing juvenile gun crimes.

                Project Exile is supported by the National Rifle Association and gun-control
                groups, including Handgun Control. However, some prosecutors say the
                program unfairly targets minorities, and some judges say it clogs federal courts
                with petty cases.

                ''There's no compromise, no plea, no parole'' for someone previously
                convicted of a felony, says James Baker, the NRA's chief lobbyist. ''We think
                it's been very effective.''

                The NRA paid for billboards and radio and TV ads promoting Project Exile
                in some cities with the program.

                Nancy Hwa of Handgun Control applauded the Bush administration's plan but
                added, ''We hope that this is not the only thing they're going to be doing.'' She
                called on Bush to ''make sure that guns don't fall into the wrong hands in the
                first place'' by closing a legal loophole that allows people to buy guns at gun
                shows without undergoing the background checks that are required for gun
                purchases from stores.

                During the presidential campaign, Bush said aggressive enforcement of
                existing gun laws is the best way to cut gun violence. After his confirmation in
                February, Ashcroft said, ''We're going to take a hard line on people who used
                guns in the commission of a crime. We should nail them.''

not knocking project exile, but...


ZERO TOLERENCE=ZERO THOUGHT

just ask young school girls with keychains that are to long or school boys who sketche pictures of soldiers or rifles.

Discerning lib

ZERO TOLERANCE = ZERO COMMON SENSE ...as well

We seem to be losing our ability to make reasonable judgement.  What once was widely accepted as reasonable and good is now being villianized by those caught up in the game of political posturing.  They don't care who it damages as long as it makes them look good.

This includes school officials that will permanently damage the free thinking of a young person - showing them the complete lack of common sense by penalizing them for something they know was not really wrong at all.

We may or may not agree with everything that GW is doing but one thing is certain.....

The alternative of Gore in the White House was unconscienable and freedom has a stay of execution for the time being!


[sniper]
[b]The Sniper

Sounds as mindless as our three strikes law in California. Worse yet, in states like ours, the bar is lowered everyday in terms of what is considered a felony. I see a day where common crimes are all felonies, and felony convictions will be used as a means to deny one his rights under the Constitution.

It's, in a sense, a return to medieval punishments. What's the eventual end to this making the fed. govt. involved in the prosecution of petty crime? How far down will it go? Steal a loaf of bread, and be hung? Everybody will be some sort of criminal, losing their rights, and if they're not, they will live in fear of becoming one inadvertently.

Remember Jean Valjean in Les Miserables? We'll all like be him, who lived in fear of his pursuer, Inspector Javert. The govt. will be a dogged Javert, forever in the forefront of everybody's thoughts- and fears.

Oppression and harrassment are a small price to live in the land of the free.
- --MONTGOMERY BURNS

I have ZERO TOLERANCE for ZERO TOLERANCE! [smoke]

Just like mandatory sentences, it is goverment on auto pilot.
Isn't it time for the pendelum to swing back?
Or is fascism the future?

I agree.  Judging from the the whining from the news media, I think that GW has hit a raw new somewhere.  BUT, we can't sit back, we have to keep on eye on the Republicans too, they can screw us too.