Giving it another shot: a reexamination of the "second or subsequent conviction" language of the firearm possession sentencing statute

The effects of the current interpretation of the federal firearm possession sentencing statute are severe, often mandating the imposition of de facto life sentences for first-time offenders. For example, suppose a twenty-three-year-old first-time offender was found guilty in a federal district court of robbing $500 from two financial institutions in two days and carrying a single firearm during the robbery spree. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, this first-time offender would be subject to a sentence ranging between 41 and 51 months for each robbery. Thus, for the substantive offenses, the sentence would total 82 to 102 months, or six years and ten months to eight years and six months. In 1993, the Supreme Court adopted the latter interpretation in Deal v US, construing conviction to mean simply a finding of guilt by judge or jury, rather than both the finding of guilt and imposition of the sentence.