On The Law Generally in Book Seven: Reconstruction 2020

I know that Red State Sentiments should stop surprising me. I mean, I have lived in either Iowa or Nebraska since 1984. My father is a passionate die-hard conservative. My brother is a libertarian. I was a passionate die-hard conservative until 2010 when Mitch McConnell started to absolute fuck things up; and then I became a registered Democrat when Trump took the helm and ultimately bury any argument for the conservatives being about less spending or traditional values. So I KNOW what is important to them. But… for some reason, I always seem to fundamentally underestimate their… fervor. Their religious passion. Their almost cult-like ardor over all of their passions.

Because it isn’t just “cult of Trump”… you also have to remember “cult of Capitalism”. And “Cult of ProLife.” NOTE, I am not saying all ProLifers are bad… I’m just saying I have conversations with people IN THIS STATE where people say “Children shouldn’t receive tax funded programs like free food or free education” and then ALSO SAY “All abortion should be illegal.” It is THOSE people that I consider to be in a Cult-Like attitude. These are the people that keep voting Steve King into office because while he may be openly White Supremacist, at least he’s Pro Life. And you know what other cult gets so much Red State worship? GUNS. People are willing to do anything to make sure that no matter what happens, nobody… no government, no police officer, nobody… takes away their guns.

Here’s a for instance....
In the United States; if you are convicted of Domestic Abuse, your gun rights are terminated. This is argued ALL THE TIME as government overreach and liberal gun control but hopefully anyone reading this might understand why the Federal Government chose to act in the way they did.
Iowa, always quick to make sure “liberal attorneys” aren’t “fast and lose” with plea deals… took it a step farther… despite being a red state?!?!? If someone is charged with Domestic Assault, but is convicted of Simple Assault against their spouse… they still lose their gun rights. SO there goes an arrow out of my quiver for the rest of time. Something that would often happen is… DUDE gets charged with Domestic Violence because he got drunk and kicked his Wife in anger (don’t think axe kick, think shin bruising). His Wife spends the next several weeks telling us that she doesn’t feel threatened, thinks the Domestic charge is ludicrous, and that she only called the police because her husband was too drunk and acting belligerent. Seeing the case with all the facts, I simply say “Was the contact, his kicking you, offensive or harmful?” To which I often hear, “There’s bruising but it isn’t like it is a serious injury or anything.” To which I suggest, “Fine. I’ll remove the Domestic Violence enhancement so that this case doesn’t follow him for years and possibly make it more difficult to work or buy a home. He pays a fine, his record has a violent blip that, should he continue this behavior, will signal to future prosecutors that he shouldn’t receive leniency.

WELL......... this causes problems of the I’LL TAKE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU TO COURT variety with the state of the Iowa Law. Because nobody in this county… not a single person… is willing to voluntarily give up their gun for any reason. So… I either have to take every DV case to court… which, considering how often victims recant their testimony is going to just be a whole SHIT TON of trial losses for me; or I have to dismiss most DV cases… which, considering the public advocacy surrounding this subject is just going to get me into a SHIT TON of PR problems; or I have to get really… really… really creative. Like… taking a “violent act in the home” and trying to find a way to turn that into “some other crime that the offender can plead guilty to that won’t cost him his gun rights.”

UFDA!

In a way, though, this does remind me of what we’d see in Omaha. As you may or may not be able to imagine, Omaha had a considerable gang problem while I was there. In fact, one year I lived there- Omaha (a town of 467,000) had around the same number of murders as San Francisco (a town of 884,000). So gun crimes were a big problem. But in court? Defendant after Defendant after Defendant that had a “Felon in Possession Charge” would have that charge dropped, dismissed, plead out. Now… I do understand… if you’re looking at a guy who killed someone or something… drop the small stuff if he pleads to the big stuff. But that wasn’t what I was seeing. I was seeing things like “Charged with: Possession of Narcotics and Felon in Possession of a Gun.” or “Charged with: Shoplifting and Felon in Possession of a Gun.” or “Driving While License Barred or Revoked and Felon in Possession of a Gun.” and it’s like… fix that shit. What I was eventually told is that they take the gun and destroy it or send it to a DCI Lab to see if it is attached to any homicides. If it comes back dirty, they follow up. If not, they don’t. Apparently, a lot of the guns were purchased legally and then either stolen, sold out of trunks, or placed in a “Gang Armory”… essentially, the gang all share weapons, so you never know exactly who used what gun for which crime. And I’m sitting there thinking… your murder rate is twice as high as it has any right to be… get the guns off the streets.

Man… call me a hippy but… can we maybe obsess over (1) raising smart, well behaved children; (2) putting an end to drug abuse; (3) solving homelessness and alleviating poverty; (4) maintaining community infrastructure like bridges and roads; and (5) not being overt, unnecessary, harmful assholes to each other? Can we obsess over that instead of obsessing over Guns and making the Rich richer?