MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - The Shelby County District Attorney is fed up with thugs packing heat in Memphis. Amy Weirich and Memphis Mayor A C Wharton want to make the penalties for gun crimes some of the toughest in the country. The plan isn't finished, but when it is Weirich says it will be one with teeth.
Like any good author, she is keeping mum on her latest project. What she's working on will probably be the biggest anti-crime package that's been proposed out of Memphis in decades.
Weirich and Mayor Wharton have been getting together to hammer out a plan that will throw the book at people using guns to commit crimes in Memphis.
"I've been a prosecutor for 21 years. And again you don't have to work at 201 every day to see the trauma and the heartache that is caused each and every day in this community because we've got people who can get their hands on guns too quickly - people that shouldn't have their hands on guns."
Amy Weirich is not talking about gun control. Gun control wouldn't have a chance of being approved in Nashville anyway, as state legislators over the years have approved laws making Tennessee one of the gun-friendliest states in the country. That's not what she's talking about here.
"We as a community have got to come together and realize the danger that guns create in our community when they are in the hands of the wrong people."
Weirich says when a plan is finally approved it will be long overdue in Memphis. And, it will set a policy to make Memphis known as a tough city on criminals - not just a tough city.
"Anybody out there in the community that's thinking about putting a gun in their hands and using it, we want them to be thinking twice."
A lot of people will have to get on board with this plan. Police, politicians, prosecutors, judges, it's going to take all of them working together for this plan to work.
