Imagine you were planning on breaking into a house with a buddy, only you shot him in the back. First, it would make you a terrible friend, to say the least, but you've also committed a crime while in the process of trying to commit another.
And the one you committed is a violent crime that could have resulted in death. The upside is that you're only getting probation.
Yes, you read that right.
This happened in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
An 18-year-old in Las Cruces has been sentenced to five years probation after he shot his friend in the back while planning a gun heist.
Court records show that on May 15, Evan Gabriel Martinez pled guilty to attempt to commit first-degree murder and was sentenced to five years probation after he shot a 15-year-old friend in the back while they were both in an alleyway planning to steal some guns from a friend's house in October 2025.
As part of his probation conditions, Martinez can't drink or possess alcohol beverages, enter any liquor store or bar, use drugs, have a gun, be in school or employed full time, submit to random urine and breath tests, have no ties or associations with gangs, avoid contact with the victim and witnesses, complete an anger management program and perform 50 hours of community service, among other things.
Oh, well, he's got to take an anger management class, so I'm sure it'll be fine.
And before someone says that it was probably unintentional, no, it wasn't. He betrayed his 15-year-old partner, shot him in the back, and now he's got a whopping five years' probation.
This is part of a recurring pattern of incidents where the people who typically scream up and down about gun control are refusing to do anything about the people who actually commit violent felonies.
Back in April, Cam wrote about a watchdog group's findings in Memphis, Tennessee, where 25 percent of violent felony convictions resulted in a suspended sentence.
Look, I don't believe that criminals are deterred by lengthy prison sentences. I used to think that, but that was when I thought criminals still had some grasp on rationality. The more I study their psychology, the more obvious it becomes that they all think they're too clever to be caught or simply don't care if they're arrested.
What it does, though, is remove these dangerous people from society for a length of time where the only people they can hurt are other criminals. That's not ideal either, but it's better than them walking around the street, free to hurt others.
And honestly, that's fine. It removes them, and as others get sent, it makes our communities safer. It's not like we'd get an influx all at once unless they just open the gates as they did during the pandemic--and how did that work out for us?
Probation for a violent felony, especially when it was in the act of attempting to commit another felony, is beyond ridiculous, as are suspended sentences for things like attempted murder in Memphis. It's little different in my mind from simply refusing to prosecute either side in a gang shootout and citing "mutual combat."
This one happened in the exact same state where the governor tried to ban all lawful firearm carry in one of its cities because of how violent things had gotten there, claiming a "public health crisis," but then we get someone who shot his supposed friend in the back being put back on the streets as if he was caught with a beer while too young.
It's asinine, to say the least, and it's really all the evidence you need that some of these people actually don't care about public safety. They just want your guns because they don't like you.
