Issue Position: Gun Control

Issue Position

As a lawyer, I am a strong supporter of the U. S. Constitution. The Second Amendment has been authoritatively interpreted to protect a law-abiding citizen's right to possess firearms. The Supreme Court has allowed that reasonable restrictions can be placed upon gun ownership. But the operative word in that sentence is "reasonable". In pressing for ever more onerous restrictions upon the rights of ordinary citizens to possess firearms, verging on treating gun owners as criminals, the Governor and General Assembly have perhaps gone beyond what is permitted by the U. S. Constitution and are certainly ignoring the real problems.

There are three principal ways in which guns are used irresponsibly, causing deaths: criminal homicides, suicides and shooting sprees, the last of which only occurs very occasionally but garners massive coverage by the media.

First, consider homicides. While Baltimore City has one of the highest homicide rates in the nation, it has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. Clearly, Baltimore is a textbook case about how even extremely tough gun control laws do not deter gun violence. The problem is that the gun control laws only affect the law-abiding citizens, who of course obey them. They do not affect the criminal element, which commits the violent crimes. Maryland prohibits the sale of handguns and other weapons without background checks, and yet thousands of criminals easily obtain guns through the black market. There were 217 homicides in Baltimore City in 2012, up 10% from 2011, and most of them involved guns. Already, in 2013, Baltimore's homicide rate is outpacing 2012. The tougher we make our gun control laws, the more gun violence occurs. Why can't we realize that we are going down the wrong road? In my view, instead of burdening law-abiding gun owners with ever more onerous restrictions, Maryland should devote more resources to shutting down the black market for guns in Baltimore City and vigorously prosecuting crimes committed with guns. The black market is sophisticated but can be stopped. Recently a sting operation resulted in the arrest of the guy who operated the Utz potato chip stand at the Lexington Market; he was selling black market guns from under his counter for prices ranging from $650 to $1,500. Instead of placing more restrictions on Maryland's legal gun owners, we need more law enforcement resources directed at City gun violence. That course will lead to a measureable reduction in criminal homicides, which is, after all, what all of us want.

Second, most gun violence in Maryland as well as in the United States does not involve homicides; rather it involves guns being used for suicide. In these tragic cases, guns are not the precipitating factor of the violence. If a person is so distraught that he or she decides to commit suicide, the absence of a handy gun merely causes the person to turn to other courses of action, such as ingesting an overdose of pills or another toxic chemical, using a razorblade or jumping off of a bridge. Common sense suggests that more restrictive gun laws would not make a material difference in the suicide rate.

Finally, turning to the separate problem of disturbed teenagers going on shooting sprees, I think that violent video games are just as responsible as the availability of firearms for this violence. Most of these young people spend untold hours playing video games in which the goal is to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. The deaths are bloodless and instantly forgotten. No bad consequences are imposed upon the game player for killing innocent people. No family members of the victims arrive on screen to sob in anguish at the deaths of their loved ones. Winning such a video game is regarded as a personal triumph by the teenagers who are playing. These games warp and pervert young minds, and in (fortunately) very rare cases, the youngster becomes so warped that a shooting spree results. We need to explore how, without violating the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, we can effectively discourage the spread and usage of these demonstrably vicious games.

The bottom line: If I am elected, I will respect a citizen's Second Amendment right to own a firearm, and will oppose unreasonable restrictions on law-abiding citizens who wish to exercise that right. I will work to increase State funding for law enforcement which is targeted at the black market for guns. I will explore ways in which the State can discourage the usage of homicidal video games.

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