Former NY Giant Plaxico Burress was sentenced to two years in prison on weapons charges.
In November, 2008, he went to a nightclub in Manhattan. He was carrying a gun along his waist–the gun slipped down his leg and shot him.
He didn’t have a license for the gun where he lived. He did have a license for the gun in Florida, but the license lapsed about 6 months earlier in May, 2008.
Burress pled guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon.
Is this really a person that should be in jail? I don’t think so. This is an absurd punishment for what amounts to not filling out paperwork. If someone wants to argue with me by claiming that others committing the same “crime” would receive the same type of sentence, I’d say their punishments are absurd too.
It isn’t hard to see why prisons are overcrowded–we send too many people to prison that should receive a slap on the wrist or treatment.