With all due respect to Mr. Fortin, saying that a judge “may” consider the circumstance as an aggravating factor would take away a lot of the impact of what we're trying to achieve here. We want judges to consider that the assaulted individual is a health care provider or first responder. A judge may consider those things now. To say “may” is to suggest, in my view, the status quo, because a judge can certainly do that when considering sentencing.
I would respectfully disagree with this subamendment.