S.E. CUPP: Obama’s dangerous commutation that no one noticed.

While most people now agree life in prison is too stiff a punishment for drug possession or even drug trafficking, Herring’s case is different than all the others, and it should raise significant questions as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle advocate for prison reform.

One of Herring’s convictions — unnoticed in March, when it was buried in the White House press release listing the commuted felons and their crimes — stands out: “Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.”

While Herring might not be a danger to his community now at the age of 76, at one point in his life he was a very dangerous man — a convicted felon who still managed to get possession of an illegal gun. Can we properly define criminals with guns as “nonviolent”? Aren’t those the very people we should want off the streets?

For some of America’s big cities, the recent rise in gun violence is almost incomprehensible.

I dunno. While I’m okay with laws banning felons from possessing firearms — though given how promiscuously felonies are designated these days, it might depend on which felonies we’re talking about — I don’t think that simple possession of a gun is a violent act, even where a felon is concerned.