BELLEVUE, WA – Weeks after Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, a bloodbath continues in Baltimore where June ended with dozens of shootings, prompting the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to ask gun control proponents what they really accomplished.
“Maryland lawmakers passed fingerprinting and licensing to prevent criminals from getting guns and thus reduce gun violence,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Evidently, criminals didn’t get the message.”
The new law does not take effect until Oct. 1, but all the talk and high-profile politicking was supposed to have sent a message to Marylanders that it is time to ratchet down on the violence. Baltimore clergy are also speaking out, calling on citizens to stop the violence.
“Criminals who ignore the current law will continue to ignore the new law as they have done elsewhere,” he predicted. “The new law was passed with good intentions, but surely the Baltimore clergy and their colleagues around the state know where the road paved with good intentions leads.
“Over the past few weeks,” he continued, “we have seen Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence taking credit for pushing through the new law. Does that mean when it doesn’t work, they will acknowledge their error and help to undo the damage they have done to the rights of law-abiding citizens?
Does it mean that lawmakers who passed the legislation and Gov. O’Malley will accept responsibility if the blood-letting continues, or will they try to blame gun owners and gun rights organizations for their own failure?
“Baltimore has racked up more than 115 homicides so far this year,” Gottlieb noted. “The city is, no pun intended, a bloody mess, and tough new gun laws will not change that, because they penalize and inconvenience the wrong people.
“Putting the brakes on bad behavior should not involve treating good people like criminals,” he concluded. “Just like Chicago, the gun control lobby in Maryland is reaping what it has sewn.”
