I bet they start sending gangbangers caught actually using guns in crimes to federal prison. The law calls for up to 10 years for each gun and 5 years for each bullet. The feds never prosecute actual criminals caught using guns on the excuse that they are being charged in state court and will go to state prison. Then they cop a plea and get out in a year.
Back in the late 90’s, Project Exile in Richmond VA some years ago - it worked:
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Patterned after federal efforts to fight illegal drug activities, the program evolved from a determination to prosecute gun charges in federal courts, where the stakes are higher for defendants than in state courts, even though federal courts generally regard gun violations as low-level crimes.
Many gun offenses become federal as well as state crimes when they are coupled with other offenses like drug possession or when the person arrested is a convicted felon, an illegal alien, a mental patient, a drug addict, a fugitive, the subject of a criminal indictment or a person convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.
As a key element of Project Exile, a coalition of business and civic leaders has cooperated with the police by saturating the area with radio and television messages, billboards and posters, warning that anyone caught with an illegal weapon faces a jail term of five years.
Project Exile is so well known on the street, said David E. Boone, a criminal defense lawyer here, that “the first thing I hear now when I talk to a client is, ‘Can you keep this from going Exile?’ A lot of them can’t add two and two, but they know a gun plus drugs equals five.”
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Gun-Enforcement-Holds-Down-Richmond-s-Homicide-2946640.php
I think you're spot on. And this will only happen with Fed LEs. Like ICE agents doing the work locals refuse to do.