Last week President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of more than 60 “nonviolent” federal inmates, many of which went to prison, in part, for possessing illegal guns. Yet U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., points out that as many as 33 of these criminals, referred to as nonviolent by the administration, were gun-carrying drug dealers. That’s a move that strikes the senator as hypocritical, if not duplicitous.
In a letter to the U.S. attorney general, Shelby writes, “These recent sentence commutations come on the heels of the president’s newly proposed executive actions restricting firearms …” Shelby then writes, “… I have supported federal proposals to improve the enforcement and implementation of existing firearms laws. However, enforcing existing firearms laws seems like an uphill battle when this administration has made a point of commuting the sentences of criminals with firearm convictions.”
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