Lawmakers must take aim at gun loophole

Before the SJC decision, Bristol County prosecutors and judges decided in case after case to hold offenders caught with illegal guns in jail until trial, and there was not a single gun murder in the county for 15 months.

At issue is the dangerousness statute, which was created by the Legislature to prevent dangerous offenders from returning to the streets to terrorize their victims. The law allows judges to decide whether a defendant can be held pending trial for 90 days because they pose a danger to the community.

The SJC decision prohibited prosecutors from seeking dangerousness hearings in felonies involving illegal firearms possession because the Legislature did not specifically allow this when it passed the law. The Legislature needs to fix this loophole.

Until two years ago the dangerous statute was most often employed in cases of domestic violence and abuse, sexual assault, arson, and other cases of physical force. But in Bristol County in 2007, as gun crimes spun out of control, we decided to seek dangerousness hearings in illegal firearm cases.

The results were transformative for our cities and citizens.

In about two years, the district attorney’s office requested 226 illegal firearms-related dangerousness hearings in four district courts and two superior courts. In more than 70 percent of those cases, judges agreed that the offender posed a danger to the community, and the suspect was held awaiting trial.

New Bedford had 38 shooting victims in 2006. Once dangerousness hearings began being employed in illegal gun cases, that number dropped to 13 in 2007. And in the six months before the SJC decision, there was not a single shooting in the city. No single step so improved the daily life of the people who live in our city. No city in the Commonwealth has seen such a drastic cut in gun violence.

The ramifications were countywide: Police calls of “shots fired’’ decreased an average of 33 percent in Fall River, New Bedford, and Taunton when dangerousness hearings were applied to gun crimes. Gang members knew the policy was working. Police and prosecutors reported that detained suspects routinely discussed that they were no longer carrying illegal guns because they knew if they got caught, they were likely going straight to jail. Guns, in other words, were disappearing from the streets.

But now the guns are back. And the criminals know why - attested to by one gang member who, arrested for possession of an illegal loaded firearm, was overheard bragging to friends that he knew police couldn’t hold him and he would be back on the street in a flash.

Of the 10 fatal and 20 non-fatal shootings in our county since the SJC decision, more than 90 percent were committed with illegal firearms.

The Legislature needs to allow judges to hold those with illegal guns pending trial. Remember: The final determination that these offenders pose an unacceptable danger to the community is made by judges, not police or prosecutors. The burden of proof is high. Prosecutors must show clearly and convincingly the defendant poses a danger to himself or the community and no reasonable bail condition would protect the safety of the public.

In its ruling, the SJC did not find the use of dangerousness hearings to hold criminals unconstitutional. The court found that the Legislature did not specifically direct use of such hearings in illegal firearms cases. For the sake of peaceful streets, the law needs to be changed now.

Sam Sutter is district attorney of Bristol County. Scott Lang is mayor of New Bedford.