Once in a blue moon, you run across a statistic or record that is mind-boggling. Some are amazing, like Alex Ovechkin’s 895 goals or Serena Williams’ 23 Grand Slam singles titles. But others are disturbing, like the fact that in Washington, D.C., between 2018 and 2022, only 1.7% of people arrested for carrying a pistol without a license were sentenced to prison.
This dismal record comes from the District of Columbia Sentencing Commission, which analyzed arrest and sentencing trends in the District’s Superior Court for carrying a pistol without a license.
Before unpacking how and why only 97 of the 5,558 adult arrests that contained at least one charge for carrying a firearm without a license ended up in prison, let’s step back and look at the bigger picture in the nation’s capital—the astronomical homicide rate—and connect the dots between that rate and…
