BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said revelations that one of two suspects being held in connection with the deadly mass shooting in Sacramento was released from prison less than two months ago shows the problem in California isn’t guns, it’s prison system rules that allowed the man to be on the streets.
“Smiley Allen Martin has a criminal history dating back at least nine years,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and he was doing a ten-year stretch for domestic violence and assault, yet thanks to the current credits system by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, here he was in Sacramento at 2 a.m. in the middle of mayhem. He’s now facing new charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of a machine gun.
“Instead of Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and others calling for more gun control,” he added, “they should be demanding prison reform that keeps violent criminals behind bars instead of allowing early release. Politicians who support such policies are perpetuating a system that ultimately poses more of a real danger to society than their imagined fears about private gun ownership.”
The Sacramento Bee is reporting that Martin has been in trouble with the law since 2013, when he was prosecuted for possession of a semiautomatic rifle and outlawed magazines, and then sentenced to “probation and county jail.” Less than a year later, he was arrested on robbery charges and sentenced to two years in prison. In 2016, after being paroled, he was back in trouble again, and the following year, he was arrested for the domestic violence and assault, and sent back to prison in January 2018 with the 10-year sentence. Yet he was released in February of this year, despite an objection last year by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office.
“Violent criminals shouldn’t be back on the streets essentially unsupervised,” Gottlieb said, “especially when their earlier crimes included illegal gun possession. This is why the American people don’t support more gun control, and instead are buying guns for personal protection. They are realizing that when you trade your freedom for some sense of security, you ultimately wind up with neither.”