American arrested in Turks and Caicos over ammo found in bag gets suspended sentence of 52 weeks*
American arrested in Turks and Caicos over ammo found in bag gets suspended sentence of 52 weeks*
www.cbsnews.com
American arrested in Turks and Caicos over ammo found in bag gets suspended sentence of 52 weeks
Smuggling weapons into other countries is a great way to ruin your own vacation.
But do it in a tropical island and congresspeople will be tripping over each other to take a 'fact-finding' trip down there to help you out.
This is the dumbest take. Most crimes require an element of intent. Using the same bag you use to take shooting or hunting is not intent to smuggle weapons. The quantities of the items found demonstrate no ill intent.
Just because you personally disagree with the 100 million gun owners doesn’t make this a moderate take. Imprisoning people for years because of a loose round in luggage is moronic politically and a waste of tax money.
The casual implication here that a round of ammo in your luggage doesn't imply you are an unsafe gun owner is insane. Lost rounds don't just happen, they are a sign that the person didn't account for all their ammo and secure it properly. There's no reason to give these people a pass.
Smuggling is always the smugglers fault.
That he’s an irresponsible gun owner too is just the cherry on top.
Try getting busted entering the US with half a gram of weed stuck in some fold of your bag, and see how they treat you.
Ahh yes, the "how dare they hold him accountable for his own actions" take.
Imagine my surprise when I quickly found you self identify as a libertarian.
Shocking.
goes looking for the actual law
So, this appears to be the relevant section of the criminal code. I'm not sure how they got to 12 years. But there are different rules that take into account intent:
https://gov.tc/agc/component/edocman/18-09-firearms-ordinance-2/viewdocument/1232?Itemid=
Here's the one I believe is applicable with intent to injure, which has a ten year minimum:
Here's the one without intent to injure, just possession, which has a seven year minimum:
I don't think that the issue was that the legislators didn't account for intent to cause harm.
That being said, I also do think that it's plausible that the legislators were operating under the assumption that anyone in-country couldn't have gotten ahold of any ammunition other than via going way out of their way to do it, whereas if someone's flying in from where it's everywhere, it's a lot easier to inadvertently wind up with it.
I don't think that the law is, in its present form, a good idea, though. I mean, even if you consider purely-domestic cases, there have to be cases where someone can accidentally wind up with ammunition. Okay, maybe we place an onus on international travelers to specially check their luggage. But, what happens if, I don't know, some cop screws up and leaves a magazine somewhere? Someone doesn't notice the thing, and bundles it up with some other stuff to a lost-and-found. That looks to be sufficient to violate the law as it stands, but I can't imagine that it's be reasonable for every person to inspect everything they're picking up with a seven year minimum sentence at stake. The only person there who I think could reasonably have acted differently would have been the cop, but the law would punish random-lost-and-found guy.
If this happened in the States, they would be imprisoned as well. No country is going to let that shit slide, champ.