Small business owners speak out to make gun laws tougher

WREG.com
May 16, 2007

MEMPHIS, TN -- The glass is broken, screens ripped off and a window frame is snapped in two. It is the result of vandals who struck at a new subdivision near the airport.

The subdivision is called Christine Place and is being developed by Terry O'Brien who owns PMP Enterprises, LLC.

Terry O'Brien says, "We have six reported instances of vandalism ranging in costs anywhere from 2, 3,4, 5 thousand dollars which we didn't even report to the insurance company but this last one was in excess of $50,000 dollar," says O'Brien.

After filing dozens of police reports and getting no where, O'Brien says he's now left with a lot of frustration and a big mess to clean up.

"It's terrible. I have many many developments in the Memphis area. I have a big investment here but I need the help of the police and government officials," says O'Brien.

O'Brien along with other small business owners came together Wednesday in East Memphis to attend a National Federation of Independent Business meeting and hear Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons talk about three laws pending in the Tennessee General Assembly. One of those would stiffen the penalties for people who commit crimes; crimes like the rape, robbery and burglary that happened nearly a week ago in an East Memphis neighborhood near Chickasaw Gardens.

"Under the legislation we're proposing, if a gun was involved, the standard sentence would be 25 to 35 years without parole. So it would make a big difference just to use that as an example," says District Attorney Bill Gibbons.

That bill is called Crooks with Guns. Then there is the Street Terrorism bill and the DA Staffing bill -- all of which add extra enforcement to Tennessee's current gun laws which is currently the weakest in the nation.

While each of the small business owners agree those laws need to be tougher some also agree solving the crime problem is about getting to the root of the problem.

"I'm a board member with the Black Business Association. We're trying to create taxpayers. If everybody is employed, it's less likely they're going to be stealing from employed people," says Dejuan Hendricks, small business owner.

He goes on to say that going to the root of the problem means confronting things like education, poverty, truancy.

"Again I want to hear about dealing with the roots, not just pruning the trees. It's cool to employ 16 or 17 year old kids for a summer, but if we employee their parents it's a whole lot easier to deal with the root of the problem. They have role models in their own home," says Hendricks.

Shelby County District Attorney Gibbons says, "Our state criminal justice system is broken. We have a system of parole, probation and diversion that in far too many cases results in people not being held accountable as they should be and we need to fix it."

He urges everyone in the Midsouth community to call their local legislators saying that the next week or two will be critical in the Tennessee General Assembly.

The Public Coalition Safety bills are sponsored by Senator Mark Norris from Collierville, Senator Randy McNally from Oak Ridge, Senator Paul Stanley from Memphis, and Representative John DeBerry of Memphis along with Representative Kent Coleman of Murfressboro.