Art. 893.4 Inapplicability to unintentional felonies

If someone is convicted of a felony that only requires proof of criminal negligence (meaning they didn't act on purpose, but were careless in a way the law punishes), the extra mandatory sentencing rules for using a firearm during a crime usually won't apply. This means the harsher penalties tied to weapon use are set aside for these types of negligence-based felonies.

However, there's an exception. If a firearm was actually used or fired while the crime was happening, those tougher sentencing rules can still apply, even though the crime itself was based on negligence rather than intent. So the key question is whether a gun was actually used or discharged, not just present, during the offense.

In simple terms, this rule protects people convicted of negligence-based felonies from automatically facing the stricter firearm sentencing add-ons, unless a gun was truly fired or used while the crime occurred.