Page:Denard Stokeling v. United States.pdf/23

8 Congress intended a 15-year mandatory prison term where that increased likelihood does not exist.” Ibid.

The same is true here. The lower grade offenders whom Florida still chooses to call “robbers” do not bear the hallmarks of being the kind of people who are likely to point a gun and pull the trigger, nor have they committed the more aggravated conduct–pointing a weapon, inflicting bodily injury–that most people think of when they hear the colloquial term “robbery.” Under Florida law, “robbers” can be glorified pickpockets, shoplifters, and purse snatchers. No one disputes that such an offender, if later discovered illegally in possession of a firearm, will in many cases merit greater punishment as a result of the past offense; unless it occurred far in the past, such a conviction will typically increase that defendant’s advisory sentencing range under the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines. See Rosales-Mireles v. United States, 585 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2018) (slip op., at 2–3); United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual §§1B1.1(a)(6)–(7), 4A1.1, 4A1.2(e) (Nov. 2018). But there is “no reason to believe that Congress intended a 15-year mandatory prison term” for such offenders, who do not present the increased risk of gun violence that more aggravated offenders present. See Begay, 553 U. S., at 146.

Unable to rely heavily on text, precedent, or purpose to support its holding that Florida robbery qualifies as an ACCA “violent felony,” the majority turns to the common law, to legislative and statutory history, and finally to what it perceives as the consequences of ruling for Stokeling. None of these rationales is persuasive.

The majority observes that Florida’s statute requires no less force than was necessary to commit common-law