Saturday, June 18, 2011

Baltimore Awash in Gun Violence - It's Getting Worse


Six people were shot, one of them fatally, after a gunman opened fire Thursday afternoon on a group of people sitting on a porch in Southwest Baltimore.

Police said the victims ranged in age from 28 to 72. Two of the surviving victims were last reported in critical condition, while three suffered wounds that were not deemed life-threatening. The man who died had not been identified.

The fatal shooting continues a trend of recent daytime shootings in the city — two men, ages 40 and 26, were killed in separate shootings at 1:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. Tuesday along Greenmount Avenue, and a 23-year-old man was fatally shot about 2 p.m. Sunday in West Baltimore. For the year, 94 people have been slain in the city, compared with 89 at this time in 2010.
It seems we're allowing gun flow to continue unabated. Do the gun-rights folks accept this as the price for freedom? It seems so.

Had the guns which were used in all these recent shootings in Baltimore been properly controlled from the time of their manufacturer to their first transfer to an FFL person and to each transfer thereafter, most of them would never have reached the criminals' hands. Why is that so difficult? Are gun owners really so self-centered that they prefer this, what we could certainly call "blood in the streets," to a safer community?

Proper gun control laws would not interfere with the ability of good people to own guns if they want them. This is the big lie of the gun-rights extremists, that decent gun control laws are tantamount to preventing them from owning guns. It's just not so.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. Yet there are millions of front porches that did not get attacked. And most of those are in states that have what you consider easy access to guns. If these states are the problem for cities like Baltimore that have strict gun control, why are they not awash in gun violence as well?

    Could it be that maybe in crime plagued cities like Chicago and Baltimore that also have strict gun control that maybe it is not inanimate objects that cause gun violence?

    Could it be maybe it is criminals that cause crime?

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  2. Yes, of course that "could be." No one is denying that. What we're questioning is the wisdom of making it easy for the bad guys to get guns just so you can enjoy your "rights" the way you do.

    I say we inconvenience you a little bit in order to make it more difficult for criminals to get the tools of their trade.

    ReplyDelete