ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991                   TAG: 9103050205
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

5-YEAR TERM SUGGESTED FOR GUN OFFENSE

Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said Monday that anyone found with a gun who has been convicted of a violent crime or drug offense should go to jail for a mandatory five years.

The attorney general, speaking to a gathering of law enforcement officials, said the key to ending criminal violence was stricter enforcement and tougher penalties.

Thornburgh said the Bush administration soon would propose a revision of the Armed Career Criminal Act, which now provides a minimum 15-year sentence for gun possession by someone with three prior convictions for violent or drug crimes.

The new provision would require a mandatory five-year prison term for "possession of a gun after only one such conviction," Thornburgh said. - Associated Press 


 by CNB