A New York Metropolis man is dealing with a number of years in jail after killing somebody who’d damaged into his residence.
However maybe most fascinating is that, at his arraignment final month, prosecutors didn’t dispute that LaShawn Craig acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Timothy Jones. As a substitute, they hit Craig with a number of fees associated to the prison possession of a weapon, as a result of he didn’t have a license for the handgun he used to guard himself.
On November 17, Craig, who has no prison historical past, was standing exterior his constructing speaking to a neighbor when he heard his residence alarm go off. After returning to his residence, he discovered Jones—sporting a masks and gloves—who, after Craig ordered him to depart, reached into his pocket. (It was later decided that he had a Taser.) Craig then fired a number of pictures, after which he known as 911.
Regulation enforcement reportedly labeled the capturing a “justified homicide.” Whereas clearly a tragic scenario, that is clearly the right choice. Which additionally makes the federal government’s option to prosecute him for prison possession of a weapon, a violent felony, all of the extra preposterous. Put in a different way, Craig ought to spend years in jail, regulation enforcement says, not as a result of he used his weapon improperly, however as a result of he used it with out first leaping via the boundaries—that are each time consuming and financially burdensome—required to register a gun with the federal government.
Craig is way from the primary such defendant. This previous summer season, Charles Foehner, an aged New York Metropolis man, shot a person trying to mug him. Quickly after, he discovered that prosecutors would search to have him die in jail. But it surely wasn’t as a result of he hadn’t acted in self-defense. He had, the proof of which was caught on video. It was as a result of police searched his residence after the capturing and located that solely a few of his weapons have been licensed with the federal government.
Jones, whom Craig killed, reportedly had over 20 prior arrests for grand larceny, theft, and home violence, amongst different convictions; Cody Gonzalez, whom Foehner killed, had a minimum of 15 prior arrests. Neither Craig nor Foehner has a prison document. And but Foehner, if convicted on all fees, would go to jail for far longer than Gonzalez would have had he survived.
Opposition to New York’s gun licensing scheme has, refreshingly, attracted some unusual bedfellows. The 2022 Supreme Court docket ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation, Inc. v. Bruen paralyzed elements of New York’s restrictive licensing guidelines governing hid carry. Amongst these cheering that outcome: progressive attorneys.
The 12 months prior, The Black Attorneys of Authorized Help, The Bronx Defenders, and Brooklyn Defender Companies submitted an amicus temporary, asking the excessive courtroom to incapacitate New York’s method to hid carry. As I wrote in June:
They provided a number of case research centered round folks whose lives have been equally upended. Amongst them have been Benjamin Prosser and Sam Little, who had each been victims of violent crimes and who are actually thought-about “violent felons” within the eyes of the state merely for carrying a firearm with out the mandated authorities approval. Little, a single father who had beforehand been slashed within the face, was separated from his household whereas he served his sentence on the Vernon C. Bain Middle, a infamous jail that floats on the East River. The conviction destroyed his nascent profession, with the Division of Schooling rescinding its supply of employment.
Now LaShawn Craig must add his identify to the unenviable checklist of people that used his gun to guard his life and was prosecuted for it anyway.