cuchulainn
Member
I'm not sure what Ashcroft's religion has to do with anything...
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30217820
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30217820
30 Jan 2003 18:00
Ashcroft announces jump in U.S. gun prosecutions
PHILADELPHIA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday announced a 32 percent increase in federal gun prosecutions and pledged a substantial increase in funding for a Bush administration program for cracking down on gun violence.
At a conference of 1,300 federal, state and local law enforcement officials, the Justice Department said 10,600 alleged offenders were charged with federal gun violations in 2002 under its 2-year-old Project Safe Neighborhoods program.
The number compared with 8,054 people who faced federal gun charges in 2000, the year before the program started. Of last year's defendants, 93 percent received prison sentences and 71 percent of those were jailed for three years or more.
"Enforcing existing firearms laws while creating innovative, effective methods for community involvement are important factors in deterring and prosecuting violent crime," Ashcroft said in a statement.
Project Safe Neighborhoods, which began in May 2001, was designed to address a U.S. epidemic of gun violence that claims over 10,000 lives a year by expanding federal firearms prosecutions through enhanced cooperation between federal, state and local agencies and community leaders.
The strategy has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association because it emphasizes the enforcement of existing federal gun laws rather than enactment of new gun-control measures.
In some of the government's 94 federal law enforcement districts, the program has taken on U.S. President George W. Bush's faith-based approach to social problems by involving church groups in violence prevention initiatives.
Ashcroft, an evangelical Christian who opposed federal gun-control legislation while a Republican U.S. senator from Missouri, said the Bush administration plans to increase the program's funding to about $342 million this year, compared with $558 million over its first two years.
The additional money would go toward funding public relations efforts in local communities, enhancing criminal statistic analysis capabilities and hiring more than 500 state and local prosecutors to handle gun cases in high-crime areas.