Baltimore loves illegal guns
Chief Tango sends us a link to CBS News Baltimore which reports on the Baltimore City Council meeting where two activists were arrested for disrupting the proceedings while the council discussed mandatory minimum sentences for folks caught with illegal guns. The council was trying to put an end to the 600 shootings in the last year in the city. After order was restored, the measure passed in a 5-2 vote. Yes, two council members voted in favor of illegal guns;
Council member Brandon Scott, of the 2nd district, says he’s against the bill in any form.
“The amendments make the bill easier to stomach, it still doesn’t change the fact that I disagree with the bill in its entirety and its principles of mandatory minimums,” he says.
One of the staunchest supporters of the bill says he’s not a fan of the amendments, but he was willing to compromise in order to get closer to the goal.
“I have dozens and dozens of constituents who have reached out about this, and they are frankly sick and tired of people illegally carrying guns on the street and wreaking havoc on out communities,” says Eric Costello of the 11th district.
The mandatory one-year sentence to jail for possessing an illegal gun only applies to the second offense unless the first offense occurs concurrent with another crime. Seems like weak sauce to me, but, hey, if it gets illegal guns off the street. I do find it hard to believe that everyone is upset at jailing criminals, though.
Category: Crime
Because of Maryland’s “Good and substantial” criteria adjudicated by the State Police, it is nearly impossible for law abiding citizens to carry legally in the first place. This just makes it more illegal, proving nothing.
They are too stupid to realize, if the righteous citizens carry concealed, the a.h.’s will think twice about who and when they attack someone, their ugly little bodies might get perforated! WE HOPE!
We have had this B***sh!t law on the books in the PRM since 1974 and it is rarely enforced. The first thing that is plea bargained out is the gun charge. So, there goes the law. The only time I have seen it enforced is someone with an expired permit is caught. So, there is another law/rule/regulation/Feel Good Measure that means nothing.
Makes me wonder, how the hell does a constitutional right “expire”?
Sounds like the Baltimore City Council is doing another “mental masturbation” session to show the citizens that they are “concerned” for their safety… until the next shooting of a kid playing in the front yard happens.
Baltimore is a “Sanctuary City of Excellence”; if they catch an illegal alien red-handed with an illegal gun, he’ll probably be given a pat on the head and sent on his way…
(Don’t forget the driver’s license, voter I.D. card, free money, housing, education, special protections… and so on).
🙂
How do you get people who think backwards like this to realize that they are living in some sort of dream world?
Saw a similar tirade in the LA Times about how stolen guns enable crime… no, CRIMINALS enable crime. Guns, stolen or otherwise, are inanimate objects. They don’t “enable” jack.
Because the gun just fucking miracled itself out of a house or a gun runner’s stash (are you reading this, Senator Yee?) and dropped into the lap of a criminal.
Nothing but window dressing unless they actually bother enforcing it on the scumbags. Going by historical precedent, what are the odds of that?
IMHO, ‘mandatory minimums’ in a law usually ensure that the law will not be enforced. It leaves no room for judicial and prosecutor discretion.
True enough, before I get jumped, judicial and prosecutor discretion is often abused. But it is irrefutable that a law cannot anticipate all circumstances. Attempting to do so has resulted in the labyrinthine laws we do have on the books. Giving the judge and the prosecutor the ability to go light on a suspect due to mitigating circumstances is, overall, a good thing.
I suspect something like this was behind the two “no” votes.
It’s a band aid on a hemorrhage type wound.
They are trying to do something so they can tell their voters that they passed it.
In reality it is the liberal weenie judges that are to blame for the violence.
They let the criminals out of jail because it’s too expensive, too cruel, they have a family, they are victims of whitey, etc. etc. etc.
If the Feds come in and start prosecuting the criminals in federal court the crime will drop as there is no parole in the federal system, to my knowledge anyway.
These people love liberal judges, let them keep them. It’s the same in every major city.
Amen. Seeing what passes for justice in PRoM both first-hand and through others (Psulie-Boi and the rest of the DRG) it amazes me anyone there goes to jail at all.
Our draft dodging Attorney General, Brian Frosh, just bragged on Twitter about how he’s “prosecut[ing] those who threaten communities w/violence, drug trafficking & gang activity.” That would be funny if it wasn’t such a lie.
Then there’s this: http://www.npr.org/2017/07/22/538705511/nobody-kill-anybody-working-for-a-pause-in-baltimores-violence
Maybe there’s hope.
(Yeah, right)
Councilman Brandon Scott is representative for my mother who lives in Baltimore and has since prior to WWII. When she had an issue with the City bureaucracy, I called his office and sent an email. The email cited a law and a department policy for a particular department. He wrote back (never called) and said that he was fine with the City breaking the law and the policy for the “better good” and could not find any reason to even want to look into the matter. He eventually passed the issue onto the Department in question who said basically said, “yeah, we did it. Now whatcha gonna do about it?” Baltimore is the town of my birth and is hemorrhaging people and money. The Council is not part of the problem. They ARE the problem. As an aside and proof that gun laws don’t keep guns out of the hands of criminals, watch this video of a shootout that occurred in Dundalk, MD, a suburb close to the city line south east of Baltimore. https://youtu.be/ZvCR2oiKF_4 The shooter, Blaine Erb, had an extensive criminal history, and had recently been released from prison. He went to work at a pizza place and after the above action, the owner looked in a bag he had left in the back of the store and found a long rifle. After leaving the store that day, Erb went and robbed some people at gunpoint. He then boarded the bus. The police responded to the robbery call and witnessed told them Erb had gotten on the bus. The police stopped the bus and all hell broke loose. Several officers were injured (one badly in the leg) but all are fine. After Erb was killed, his niece said that while she understood that Erb had a long criminal history, she wished the police had shot him in a non-lethal manner. (WTH?) Erb’s mother acknowledged he had mental and emotional issues and swore he would never go back to prison. So let’s check the boxes off, shall we? Metal issues yet has multiple guns? Check. Emotional issues and yet… Read more »
That’s because they don’t care as much about “illegal” guns as they do about “legal” guns.
They want to get rid of legal guns altogether because that is easier to implement. Granted, they will be sure to “exempt” themselves from any gun laws so they can carry because they “deserve” to carry guns themselves, just not anyone else. (Same as the California legislature)