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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/409396.html
Legislators seek stiffer gun-crime laws
Wed, Feb. 06, 2008
TALLAHASSEE -- Citing a recent shooting rampage against Miami-Dade police,
two South Florida Democratic lawmakers announced legislation Wednesday to
increase penalties against criminals who use guns or obtain them with false
identities.
Sen. Gwen Margolis and Rep. Evan Jenne said the increased penalties, which
call for mandatory sentences ranging from 25 years to life in prison, should
help deter a rash of so-called ''assault weapons'' shootings, such as the
one that led to the death of Miami-Dade Officer Jose Somohano in September.
But the legislation doesn't address a key problem highlighted by Somohano's
killing: A loophole in state law that makes it relatively easy for an
identity thief to buy a gun. During a gun purchase, the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement doesn't check a certain motor-vehicle database to see if
a driver's license used by a buyer has been flagged in an identity-theft
case.
So months before Somohano and four other officers were shot, accused killer
Shawn Labeet was able to use a stolen identity to buy numerous firearms --
including the murder weapon -- with the the unwitting approval of the FDLE,
which found no problem with the driver's license Labeet used, according to
an investigation by Miami Herald news partner CBS4.
Three years before the killing, a man named Kevin Wehner notified
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office that someone had stolen his identity. The
state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says the report
didn't get to them until too late. In the hours after the shooting, police
originally sought Wehner and not Labeet, potentially endangering Wehner
because his photo was released to the news media and hampering detectives
seeking the killer.
Even if the word about Wehner's I.D. theft made it to DHSMV, it appears it
wouldn't have made a difference. FDLE spokeswoman Kristin Perezluha said the
agency ''is not authorized'' to check the driver-license database to see if
a buyer might be using a stolen identity.
When asked about why the bill didn't include mandates for more
identity-theft investigations, Margolis, of Sunny Isles Beach, said: ``I
can't tell law enforcement when to get involved.''
Jenne, of Dania Beach, added: ``It's concentrating strictly on
semi-automatic weapons, not those other issues.''
National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer called the bill
''election-year nonsense'' and said she will work overtime to kill it in the
Republican-led Legislature. She said the bill is so poorly written it's a
back-door way of controlling lawful gun ownership while repeating existing
federal law concerning gun crimes.
The proposal would require prison sentences of life if a criminal harms
someone while committing a crime with a semi-automatic or automatic weapon;
25 years if the criminal commits a crime with such a weapon; 15 years if the
criminal obtains one of the weapons by using a stolen or fake I.D.
Also facing a 15-year sentence: the gun seller, even if he didn't know the
buyer duped him by using a fake identification. Staffers said they'll try to
soften that language to avoid charging lawful gun sellers, but Margolis said
the penalty wasn't too harsh for sellers.
''I don't think that they're really duped. They know the kind of evidence
that they would need. What's happening is the gun sellers are not
necessarily enforcing the laws that are in this state, and we've never made
them responsible for the enforcement,'' she said. ``This would help law
enforcement by making them responsible.''
But Monroe County sheriff's Sgt. Thomas Kiffney said Margolis' legislation
misses the mark.
Kiffney owns one of the gun shops where Labeet purchased a number of guns.
Kiffney said he followed the law by watching Labeet fill out a Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-buying form, checking his
driver's license and then calling the FDLE with the license information to
make sure everything was fine. The FDLE green-lighted the sale. The murder
weapon was purchased at another shop, D&P Pawn in Tamarac, where a man who
answered the telephone refused comment.
Later, when Labeet wanted to buy body armor, Kiffney became so suspicious
that he alerted ATF.
''I did more than I was supposed to,'' Kiffney said. ``The ball was dropped
by so many agencies so many times. . . . It would help if the lawmakers
tried to fix some of the problems, rather than just propose a knee-jerk fix
like this.''
Legislators seek stiffer gun-crime laws
Wed, Feb. 06, 2008
TALLAHASSEE -- Citing a recent shooting rampage against Miami-Dade police,
two South Florida Democratic lawmakers announced legislation Wednesday to
increase penalties against criminals who use guns or obtain them with false
identities.
Sen. Gwen Margolis and Rep. Evan Jenne said the increased penalties, which
call for mandatory sentences ranging from 25 years to life in prison, should
help deter a rash of so-called ''assault weapons'' shootings, such as the
one that led to the death of Miami-Dade Officer Jose Somohano in September.
But the legislation doesn't address a key problem highlighted by Somohano's
killing: A loophole in state law that makes it relatively easy for an
identity thief to buy a gun. During a gun purchase, the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement doesn't check a certain motor-vehicle database to see if
a driver's license used by a buyer has been flagged in an identity-theft
case.
So months before Somohano and four other officers were shot, accused killer
Shawn Labeet was able to use a stolen identity to buy numerous firearms --
including the murder weapon -- with the the unwitting approval of the FDLE,
which found no problem with the driver's license Labeet used, according to
an investigation by Miami Herald news partner CBS4.
Three years before the killing, a man named Kevin Wehner notified
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office that someone had stolen his identity. The
state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says the report
didn't get to them until too late. In the hours after the shooting, police
originally sought Wehner and not Labeet, potentially endangering Wehner
because his photo was released to the news media and hampering detectives
seeking the killer.
Even if the word about Wehner's I.D. theft made it to DHSMV, it appears it
wouldn't have made a difference. FDLE spokeswoman Kristin Perezluha said the
agency ''is not authorized'' to check the driver-license database to see if
a buyer might be using a stolen identity.
When asked about why the bill didn't include mandates for more
identity-theft investigations, Margolis, of Sunny Isles Beach, said: ``I
can't tell law enforcement when to get involved.''
Jenne, of Dania Beach, added: ``It's concentrating strictly on
semi-automatic weapons, not those other issues.''
National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer called the bill
''election-year nonsense'' and said she will work overtime to kill it in the
Republican-led Legislature. She said the bill is so poorly written it's a
back-door way of controlling lawful gun ownership while repeating existing
federal law concerning gun crimes.
The proposal would require prison sentences of life if a criminal harms
someone while committing a crime with a semi-automatic or automatic weapon;
25 years if the criminal commits a crime with such a weapon; 15 years if the
criminal obtains one of the weapons by using a stolen or fake I.D.
Also facing a 15-year sentence: the gun seller, even if he didn't know the
buyer duped him by using a fake identification. Staffers said they'll try to
soften that language to avoid charging lawful gun sellers, but Margolis said
the penalty wasn't too harsh for sellers.
''I don't think that they're really duped. They know the kind of evidence
that they would need. What's happening is the gun sellers are not
necessarily enforcing the laws that are in this state, and we've never made
them responsible for the enforcement,'' she said. ``This would help law
enforcement by making them responsible.''
But Monroe County sheriff's Sgt. Thomas Kiffney said Margolis' legislation
misses the mark.
Kiffney owns one of the gun shops where Labeet purchased a number of guns.
Kiffney said he followed the law by watching Labeet fill out a Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-buying form, checking his
driver's license and then calling the FDLE with the license information to
make sure everything was fine. The FDLE green-lighted the sale. The murder
weapon was purchased at another shop, D&P Pawn in Tamarac, where a man who
answered the telephone refused comment.
Later, when Labeet wanted to buy body armor, Kiffney became so suspicious
that he alerted ATF.
''I did more than I was supposed to,'' Kiffney said. ``The ball was dropped
by so many agencies so many times. . . . It would help if the lawmakers
tried to fix some of the problems, rather than just propose a knee-jerk fix
like this.''
