Mike Thompson: “I cannot let it go without raising my objection to something that I think has to do with an important principle. It is…”

“I cannot let it go without raising my objection to something that I think has to do with an important principle. It is very unfortunate, when we have tragic circumstances that happen in this country, such as young people being killed, all the violence and abuse that goes on in this country, we take that and use the emotionalism from it to make bad law. I do not think anybody within the sound of my voice can accuse me of being soft on crime. I ran in 1994 on that issue. I ran again in 1996 on that issue. My position is clear. But my position is also clear that we are continuing the trend toward the centralization of decisionmaking in this country. In other words, if we do not like what a State is doing with regard to its criminal laws, we tend to find a way around it.”