Targeting felons with firearms

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

Convicted criminals who are caught carrying weapons could find themselves in for a big surprise thanks to the cooperative efforts of those in the legal system.

Instead of being tried in state court and escaping with either probation or a light state prison sentence, more and more felons arrested in Las Vegas may end up facing lengthier, federal prison terms.

The U.S. attorney's office, Clark County district attorney's office, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and area police departments have decided they have had enough.

"We have been finding people on the streets of Nevada with violent criminal histories that have been released from prison early and are again committing crimes," B.J Zapor, resident agent in charge of the ATF's Las Vegas Field Office, said.

Whenever someone is arrested and charged with committing a crime with a gun, police officers and the Clark County district attorney's office will look closely at that person's criminal history to see if he is a likely candidate for federal prosecution, Zapor said.

If the suspect is considered a violent repeat offender, the district attorney's office will call ATF agents, who will then re-investigate the crime and test fire the weapon to ensure it meets the legal definition of a firearm, Zapor said.

Once the investigation and tests are complete, the case is then presented to the U.S. attorney's office for possible prosecution, Zapor said.

The U.S. attorney's office has chosen to prosecute approximately 75 such cases over the past several months, Tom O'Connell, chief of the U.S. attorney's narcotics and violent crime division, said.

"The state system is overburdened and typically the suspects in these felon-in-possession cases will plead to a gross misdemeanor and get probation," O'Connell said. "Federal sentences provide for substantially harsher periods of incarceration, up to 15 years."

The average sentence of those convicted in U.S. District Court is seven years, O'Connell said.

O'Connell said one man was sentenced to 280 months in prison earlier this year after he sold three guns to undercover officers. It turned out he had eight prior felony convictions, including one state conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Under federal law, the defendant must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, O'Connell said.

"These are the type of people who are going to hurt people," O'Connell said. "It's kind of hard to quarrel with their prosecution."

O'Connell said that Metro Police arrests between 500 and 600 felons every year who are armed. Those who are prosecuted federally are those with significant criminal histories or those who were doing "something particularly offensive" with the firearm.

"We've had people pistol-whipping other people and shooting at other people," O'Connell said. "These are typically the types of cases we'll file on."

Zapor said he hopes the program proves to be a deterrent.

"It's essential to the ATF that the criminal element here knows we will do everything we can to get them and their guns because their existence is a direct threat to the people of Nevada," Zapor said. "The enthusiasm of the U.S. attorney's office and the excellent cooperative efforts of the district attorney's office and the police are making this project a deterrent force in firearms crimes in Southern Nevada."

While the U.S. attorney's office has filed a significant number of cases against felons with firearms, O'Connell said it is just part of a larger picture.

The attorneys are taking advantage of a variety of harsher federal laws to go after the more egregious criminals in federal court, O'Connell said.

For instance, convenience store robbers or casino robbers can be charged with the federal crime of interference with interstate commerce under the Hobbs Act, O'Connell said.

Many convenience stores do bank transfers, order merchandise from out-of-state vendors and serve out-of-state customers and thus they fall under interstate commerce laws, O'Connell explained.