OAKLAND — If the Alameda County District Attorney gets her way, first time gun possession offenders will go to jail.

A new policy enacted by DA Ursula Jones Dickson will require prosecutors to seek “mandatory minimum” sentences of jail or prison for all gun charges, from first-time arrestees charged with a misdemeanor to repeat felons caught with a gun. Prosecutors were notified of the policy change on Monday, an office spokesman said.

At a news conference Monday, Jones Dickson announced the policy change in the wake of last week’s slaying of Laney College football Coach John Beam, whose suspected killer went onto the Oakland campus on Thursday with a gun he legally owned and allegedly shot Beam in the head. Beam, who was Laney’s athletics director, was pronounced dead Friday morning.

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