http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/dade/digdocs/088300.htm

Published Thursday, October 5, 2000, in the Miami Herald

Gun crimes fall 18%; new law credited
TALLAHASSEE — (AP) — The number of crimes committed with guns dropped 18 percent in the 12
months ending July 1, and state officials credited a new law that sets tough minimum prison
terms for gun-toting criminals.
The drop, from 33,576 firearm-related crimes the previous year to 24,190 such crimes in the
past year represented a 20 percent decline in the gun crime rate, which compares the number of
victims to the total population.

“That’s at least 9,300 fewer victims that will thankfully never know the horrors of being
victimized by a violent gun criminal,” said Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan.

The “10-20-Life” law took effect July 1, 1999, setting a mandatory prison term of 10 years
for people who have a gun in their possession when they commit certain serious felonies.

The minimum term goes up to 20 years if the gun goes off. If anyone is killed or seriously
hurt, the criminal must be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison — and could get life.

It was a centerpiece of Gov. Jeb Bush’s first-year legislative agenda, and Florida Department
of Law Enforcement Commissioner Tim Moore credited the law with much of the decrease in its
first year on the books.

“The obvious interpretation there is that it’s working,” Moore said.

The year before the law took effect — from July 1, 1998, to July 1, 1999 — the number of gun
crimes dropped 11.9 percent and the rate of gun crimes when population is factored in dropped
13.6 percent.

Fred Shenkman, a professor of criminology at the University of Florida, said taking violent
criminals out of the population with long sentences does have some effect on the rate of
violent crime the next year.

“A very small percentage of people commit most of the crime, and you would assume they would
not be easily replaced” if they are put in prison, Shenkman said.

But he said crime overall is going down — and if other types are decreasing, too, something
else must be at work as well.

The public won’t know how much crime overall went down in the period until Friday, when the
FDLE releases mid-year statistics for a variety of crimes.