924C possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Justice.gov says:                                                                                                                    Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c)(1)(A) provides, in pertinent part:"Any person who, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime . . .  for which the person may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, . . . uses or carries a firearm, or who, in furtherance of any such crime, possesses a firearm, shall in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence or drug trafficking crime -                                                                  (i)  be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years;

This charge should not apply to everyone that has drugs and guns in the same location. In the dictionary, the definition of furtherance is "the advancement of a plan or interest". What this means, is if you are caught with drugs and an unloaded gun in your vehicle this is the charge you receive. It doesn't matter if you've used the gun or not or if you've in any way advanced your drug crime or not. There are so many other reasons that you might coincidentally have these two things in the same location. It doesn't always mean that you're using that firearm in any way to further your drug trafficking crime. You could be a collector or maybe bought it as a gift and returning home with it, There are a number of reasons, it could be anything. But not in the eyes of the federal government. When you receive this charge, as stated above that adds an extra 5 years to your sentence that is not to run concurrently with your other charge but to run consecutively meaning when you serve your time for your first charge then you'll serve the 5 years for this charge. Not only does it tack on an extra 5 years to your sentence, but It also puts you in the violent category. Being in this violent category now makes you ineligible for any time off or early release with earned time credits through the first step act. This means you can't do any programs or any classes to earn any time off your sentence. This happened to a very good friend of mine a couple of years ago. Someone that is a very good person but has made some very bad decisions because of his drug addiction. Someone who when arrested had thrown out part of the drugs that he had and the police officers never found it not even with drug dogs. They had given up the search and only charged him with what he had on him and of course with the unloaded gun. By the next afternoon, being the man that he is, the thought of a kid finding the drugs ate at him so bad that he talked to the officers and took them to the drugs he had thrown. He knew if he did this that it would put him in the 10-year bracket instead of the five for the amount of drugs but he was more concerned with the fact that a kid could find it and what could happen. After going to federal court he received 15 years. The extra 5 years for the gun charge(924C) now landed him in the violent category. This man doesn't have any violence in his history, he is well known for helping people throughout the community, he has children, a mom, a dad, and many other family members who love him very much and really need him home. But he's ineligible for any earned time credits to receive time off his sentence because he had an unloaded gun in the car. It wasn't a fully loaded high-capacity assault rifle, it was an unloaded small caliber hunting rifle and an unloaded collector derringer pistol. All cases are not the same and should not be treated the same. They should be treated accordingly to the evidence against them. This man's parents are coming up on 70 years old. With no time off, it's likely, that he will never see them outside those prison walls again. He would have been next in line to run the family business which employs his son, his nephew, and other members of the family. To recap how our federal government works, he got 5 years for the drugs he had on him, an extra 5 years for being more concerned with public safety than his own, doing the right thing, and another 5 years for having an unloaded gun in the car carrying it home and is now deemed violent and can't earn any time off. There are way worse criminals that get far less time. It just doesn't seem fair.