Back during one of the previous crime waves in gun-hostile Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the legislature – with the help of gun rights groups – passed a pretty significant tool for prosecutors to use against gun crimes; an up-charge for committing a crime with a firerarm, with a mandatory five year sentence.

In a subsequent crime wave, it was noted that the Ramsey County attorney at the time, the useless Susan Gaertner, had pled the upcharge out in every single case in which it was offered.

We also noted, in relation to last summer’s shooting of an armed robber by a citizen with a gun in Saint Paul, that the Ramsey County Attorney’s office had declined to use the statute to charge Laurentai Broadbent’s accomplices.

Now, MPR – in a piece by Brandt Williams – notes that  it’s a statewide trend; it’s the exception rather than the rule that prosecutors use the upcharge for gun crimes. MPR notes that the sentence is applied in only 42 percent of applicable crimes.

I’m going to speculate, here; those 42 percent come disproportionally from Greater Minnesota, most likely districts with conservative majorities or pluralities.

I’m going to try to find the numbers involved, and see if there is some sort of geographic correlation to this discrepancy.