The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved imposing harsher penalties on illegal gun trafficking offenses in major metropolitan cities. The case involved a gun smuggler who received a sentence 6 months longer than the sentence recommended by the federal sentencing guidelines.
The appeals court said the evidence pointed to the defendant’s knowledge that the guns he sold in Florida were destined for New York City. The judge who imposed the sentence based it on the urgent need to deter gun trafficking into large metropolitan areas. The appeals court found that, “Where the profits to be made from violating a law are higher, the penalty needs to be correspondingly higher to achieve the same amount of deterrence.”
Source: http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/entry/NYC-court-Big-city-guns-can-equal-stiff-sentence
