{"id":1169030,"date":"2021-12-29T11:20:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T16:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1169030"},"modified":"2021-12-29T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T16:20:12","slug":"washington-state-democrats-push-bill-reducing-penalties-for-drive-by-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-state-democrats-push-bill-reducing-penalties-for-drive-by-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington State Democrats Push Bill Reducing Penalties for Drive-By Shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwashington-state-democrats-push-bill-reducing-penalties-for-drive-by-shootings%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1169030&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/police-crime-tape-Shreveport-PD.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Washington state Reps. Tarra Simmons (D) and David Hackney (D) are pushing legislation to remove drive-by shootings from the list of crimes that elevate first degree to murder to a higher degree of murder carrying a mandatory life sentence.<\/p>\n<p>FOX News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/washington-lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-reduce-penalties-for-drive-by-shootings-to-promote-racial-equity\">reports<\/a> that \u201cdrive-by shootings were added to the list of aggravating factors for murder charges in 1995.\u201d At the time, drive-by shootings were one of a number of crimes that would elevate charges and Simmons and Hackney are now working to remove such shootings from the list.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The 1995 language that Simmons and Hackney want to specifically strike from the aggravating factors list says: \u201cThe murder was committed during the course of or as a result of a shooting where the discharge of the firearm\u2026 is either from a motor vehicle or from the immediate area of a motor vehicle that was used to transport the shooter or the firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Simmons says she believes the language surrounding drive-by shootings \u201cwas targeted at gangs that were&nbsp;predominantly young and Black.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cI believe in a society that believes in the power of redemption. Murder is murder no matter where the bullet comes from but locking&nbsp;young people up and throwing away the key is not the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Simmons points to Kimonti Carter as a example of why she wants to remove drive-by shootings from the aggravating factors list. Carter was convicted in a drive-by shooting that left two people dead in 1997. He received a 777-year sentence and Simmons said, \u201cIf&nbsp;he had been standing outside of the vehicle at the time, he would\u2019ve&nbsp;faced 240-320 months in prison. Instead, he was sentenced to life in&nbsp;prison with no opportunity for parole because of this law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>770 KTTH <a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3293353\/rantz-wa-democrats-bill-says-its-racial-equity-to-go-easy-on-drive-by-murderers\/\">points out<\/a> that Simmons and Hackney\u2019s pushed to strike drive-by shootings from the aggravating factors list is posited as a pursuit of \u201cracial equity in the criminal legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On July 22, 2021, KIRO 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiro7.com\/news\/local\/drive-by-shootings-up-100-seattle-shootings-5-year-high-king-county\/Z4ZFCK2RZND4FEUTL7BH2TWHBM\/\">noted<\/a>&nbsp;a surge of gun violence in Seattle and quoted Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diazwas saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve seen more than a 100% increase in drive-by shootings this year alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News<\/em><em>&nbsp;and the writer\/curator of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/downrange\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Down Range with AWR Hawkins<\/a>,&nbsp;<\/em><em>a weekly newsletter focused o<\/em><em>n al<\/em><em>l things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram:&nbsp;<\/em><em><a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/awr_hawkins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@awr_hawkins<\/a>. Reach him at&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"mailto:awrhawkins@breitbart.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">awrhawkins@breitbart.com<\/a>. You can sign up to get Down Range at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/downrange\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">breitbart.com\/downrange<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington state Reps. Tarra Simmons (D) and David Hackney (D) are pushing legislation to remove drive-by shootings from the list of crimes that elevate first degree to murder to a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}