Monday Gunday

**Nigel** (0:13)
Stop calling your arms guns. My name is Igel. Jason Hammer right over there with a very special in-studio guest.

**Jason Hammer** (0:23)
To a attorney, firearms instructor, and damn fine American, he is the host of the Gun Guy Show every Saturday here at 93WIBC. Guy Relford. Guy, how are you?

**Guy Relford** (0:35)
Guys, I am great. And thanks as always to our sponsor for Monday, Gunday, that's Premier Arms in Brownsburg with the largest selection of new, used and historic firearms in the Midwest. And PA Jewelers located in the farmhouse right out front. Check them out at 3754 South Green Street in Brownsburg or premierarms.com.

**Jason Hammer** (0:52)
Hey, Guy, I want to get your thoughts on that press conference that Ryan Mears did that late last week in regards to the 14-year-old shooter of the guy that was in the parking garage downtown.
During that press conference, it didn't take very long for Ryan Mears to, one, have some sort of weird victory lap that the alleged shooter does not have a criminal record. Like he was giddy like a schoolgirl about that. But number two, started blaming the guns. It was the gun problem. And I thought, man, I wonder what Guy Relford would think.

**Guy Relford** (1:29)
Yeah. Well, you know, on the first point, I actually get it a little bit, Jason, in the sense that Ryan Mears gets beat up a lot for what we always talk about, which is this revolving door of the criminal justice system and repeat violent offenders being cranked through the system and putting back out on the street. In fact, as you guys have talked about, Mayor Sue Fincombe up in my neck of the woods, my hometown Carmel, came out and said, hey, after a very violent carjacking in Carmel, came out and said Marion County is exporting its crime by cranking out these repeat violent offenders, go back out onto the street. Now they're coming to Hamilton County and they're committing crimes up here too. And this is a Marion County problem that they're now exporting to the doughnut counties. And something's got to be done about this.
So I kind of get where Ryan Mears was coming from in the sense that he's saying this guy, this 14-year-old didn't have a criminal history. So what he's saying is, you know, if you want to beat up on me for this revolving door and repeat violent offenders, this particular kid doesn't fall in that category. So that part of it, I kind of get.

**Jason Hammer** (2:37)
And I get that. And you're right. It just seemed to me like that was more important to him than anything else. Like this was a press conference where you're announcing a murder charge against a 14-year-old where some kid is going to have his life completely taken away. And if he did this rightfully so, just pick and choose, read the room. That's not the thing to keep going back to over and over again.

**Guy Relford** (3:04)
Exactly. It's about him being defensive and about his own political aspirations and his ongoing political career. That's where his focus was in vindicating himself, at least in this narrow window of this particular crime and this particular suspect.
But I'm sure that's where his motivation was, even though I agree with you, his priorities are a little off.
Why don't we talk about keeping guns out of the hands of these 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds, up to any other age you want to pick who are not legally capable of possessing firearms. Let's talk about the methodologies for keeping those people off the street or keeping guns out of their hands and not just start picking on guns generally like those of us lawfully exercising our Second Amendment rights are somehow contributing to the problem.

**Nigel** (3:51)
How hard is it going to be for the prosecution to A, get this kid into adult court and put him away for the rest of his life, which I think should absolutely happen, that's just my opinion, and B, charge the parents or guardians or whoever allowed him to get his hands on a gun?

**Guy Relford** (4:09)
Really interesting questions. Let me tell you exactly how the first process works, which is waving him into adult court.
If someone is not 16 or 17, then you can't what we call direct file in adult court against a juvenile criminal charges. But if they're younger than 16, you have to file in juvenile court as a prosecutor first off. So we got murder charges against a 14-year-old that has to be filed in juvenile court. However, then the prosecutor has the option of filing a petition to waive it into adult court. For murder, and this changes depending on the crime that's alleged. For murder, the juvenile court judge has to make two determinations. And this is discretionary.