Supreme Court Allows Longer Sentences For Gun Crimes

In its first ruling of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court today said that federal law imposes a higher minimum sentence when a gun is used, even if the criminal is subject to another mandatory minimum sentence. The law gives a longer minimum sentence when a criminal uses or carries a gun during the commission of a violent crime or drug trafficking.

Kevin Abbott and Carlos Rashad Gould had been convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon and drug trafficking, respectively. Each of those crimes carries its own minimum sentence, and Abbott and Gould argued the language in the Gun Control Act exempted them from additional mandatory sentences.

In an eight to zero decision the Supreme Court said that the law’s language about exemptions was only intended to keep the law from being applied multiple times itself. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, announcing the decision from the bench, said that it would be improper to give a 105year sentence enhancement for discharging the firearm, plus a 7-year sentence for brandishing a firearm, plus a 5-year sentence for carrying a firearm.

Instead, she said, the law was written to apply only one of the provisions at a time. But that exclusion only stretched as far as Gun Control Act and other convictions related to gun possession and use. It did not exclude the mandatory sentence when there are mandatory sentences for other crimes.

The case was Abbott v. US.