Two new laws to think about

I’ve never been part of the “lock the door and throw away the key” crowd, but I was more than a little surprised to read that 20-year-old Jo-El Trent was given just eight years in prison for shooting Robert Brown Jr. twice in the chest outside the Lynchburg Public Library on January 26.

Trent’s reason for pulling out his .38 Special was that he felt “disrespected” after Brown made a rude hand gesture in his direction. Brown may or may not have any more respect for his assailant, but he’ll never forget him — the two bullets are still inside his body, having done serious damage to his heart, liver and diaphragm.

What’s strange about our legal code, however, is that the law actually gives you a break for being a bad shot (or, in this case, shooting someone who refuses to die). Given that he fired two bullets into a highly vulnerable part of Brown’s anatomy, the case could certainly be made that Trent intended lethal and fatal harm (although it’s impossible to read his mind).

And had Brown expired on the spot, or later in the hospital, Trent would have been looking at a considerably longer sentence for murder. The eight-year punishment doesn’t seem to reflect the fact that Brown’s survival wasn’t for lack of trying on Trent’s part.

The shooter pleaded guilty to aggravated malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Yet it seems to me that “assault with intent to kill” could be pursued more often in cases like this. Obviously, the prosecution didn’t think they could make it stick.

Then again, I’m not a lawyer — just someone who gets a little nervous when bullets are flying around a very public area.

sss

I came of age — the drinking age, that is — in Upstate New York, where the mere fact of my turning 18 pried open the doors of the liquor cabinet.

Of course, like most people in their late teens, I didn’t know how to drink. Very quickly, I learned my first lesson — just because you feel pretty good after a couple of drinks doesn’t mean you will feel twice as good if you drink twice as much. It’s a bell curve effect.

These days, I wrestle with the idea of alcohol, because I have seen how much destruction it has caused. On the other hand, I still believe it is one of life’s pleasures if treated with respect.

So here’s an idea: How about issuing a drinking license to any Virginian who turns 21 and wants one? The only condition would that the applicant would have to attend a short presentation giving him or her some of the facts about alcohol — the undiluted facts, so to speak.

Another government intrusion, yes, but the civil authorities already keep a close eye on alcohol sale and consumption. Servers and bouncers and store clerks wouldn’t have to peer at faded drivers’ licenses, because the drinking license would become the ticket to the bar.

If you abused this privilege by driving drunk or getting involved in alcohol-fueled violence, you could have your drinking license pulled for varying lengths of time. That would theoretically prevent buying alcoholic beverages at a nightclub or a convenience store.

Sure, some license-less people would find ways to imbibe, but it would be a lot more difficult. And the license would emphasize the fact that it all revolves around personal responsibility.