A Florida Republican is proposing legislation that would require convicted child sex abusers to face either the death penalty or life in prison.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said the âNo Repeat Child Sex Offenders Actâ will be introduced in the House on Thursday, according to Fox News. She outlined her philosophy in a pair of social media posts.
âYou cannot rehabilitate predators. If you RapeChildren, you deserve the death penalty,â Luna posted on X.
âDeath penalty. It will come to the floor. Letâs see who tries to protect pedophiles,â she wrote on Facebook.
In comments to Fox, Luna noted that her bill applies to those who hire minors for sex.
âAnyone who is even going to consider exploiting someone like this â and you canât tell me that they donât know that these people are trafficked or that they donât know that thatâs a young child â but the fact is ⌠if youâre knowingly doing this, you have to be held accountable,â she said.
âItâs pretty black and white.â
The bill would also impose the death penalty or life in prison on convicted sex traffickers. Under current law, sex traffickers may receive a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine.
âItâs absurd to me, not only as a new mom, but also if you just look at some of the federal statutes, that thereâs not more strict punishments for people that are doing this,â Luna said.
Additionally, Luna wants the federal minimum sentence for Rape to be increased to 30 years and is calling for tougher penalties for possession of child pornography.
âIt is absurd that rapists can get off after a few years of âgoodâ behavior after destroying lives. I will also be asking to increase the federal minimum,â the congresswoman posted Saturday on X.
Luna offered more details to Fox.
âWhether itâs issues of Rape or molestation ⌠it destroys peopleâs lives, and itâs something that they carry with them for the rest of the time that theyâre adults. And so it can impact people, and we should be thinking of this very seriously,â she said.
âOne of my big platforms has been, how do you combat child trafficking, just with everything happening in our country? And it seems like thereâs been this obviously massive issue here in the States with consumption of ⌠child pornography and/or just attacks, really, on kids.â
âI think that if youâre really about protecting Children ⌠you have to have strict laws. And thatâs exactly why weâve introduced it.â
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
