JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Roughly 120 convicts across the state of Florida are now facing federal charges because they were convicted felons who were illegally in possession of firearms.
Many of those felons who are now facing federal charges are in the Jacksonville area.
A four-page list of convicted felons in the Jacksonville area includes people who are looking at anywhere from 10 years to life in federal prison.
The more than 200 names on the Department of Justice list are convicted felons across Florida who are now facing federal gun charges.
The charges are part of a Violent Crime Reduction Initiative that seizes unlawfully possessed guns, then swiftly prosecutes convicted felons both at the state and federal level. That means longer prison sentences, especially for felons who are also facing narcotic charges in addition to illegal gun charges.
Within the past three months in Florida, roughly 120 convicted felons were hit with federal gun charges. Within the Jacksonville metropolitan area alone, 33 felons were charged. That represents 27 percent of the total number of felons now facing federal charges.
During the same time frame, 220 guns were seized statewide from the same felons. In the Jacksonville area, that number is 95, which means the Jacksonville metropolitan area had 43 percent of the total number of guns seized throughout the state.
Though most of the felons from the area who are facing federal gun charges were caught with one or two guns, one person on the list was busted with 20 firearms.