The Democrats in control of the state legislature have repeatedly cracked down on lawful gun owners over the past few years. They've banned so-called assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. They've required every handgun owner in the state to acquire a Handgun Qualification License or else risk three years in prison. They've tried to make broad swathes of the state "gun-free zones" after the Bruen decision struck down the "may issue" concealed carry licensing system that artificially suppressed the number of people exercising their right to bear arms.
And while they've been doing that, they still found time to pass a series of criminal justice "reforms" that take a soft approach to violent criminals in general, and juvenile offenders in particular. So while lawful gun owners have to worry about accidentally carrying in the wrong place and would-be gun owners have to wait several months for their Second Amendment permission slip, juveniles accused of violent crimes are quickly let loose and returned to the streets... if they're even taken into custody to begin with.
Three teens who carjacked a 39-year-old female in the 5900 block of Holabird Ave [last] Tuesday, are back home.
According to a BPD spokesperson, the 13-, 14- and 15-year-old, have been placed on ankle monitors and released to their guardians.
After stealing the victim's 2025 BMW X4, implying one of the suspects had a gun, the suspects fled the scene before BPD's aviation unit spotted the vehicle.
The driver crashed into another vehicle on I95, then the suspect ran from the vehicle, into Rosedale neighborhood.
Fox45 obtained video of the suspects running through the neighborhood and being caught by Baltimore Police.
At the time of their arrest, Baltimore Police confirmed each suspect had previous arrest, including arrest for stolen vehicles.
Fox45 also documented a separate incident in Baltimore last week where a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old are accused of robbing another juvenile of his phone at gunpoint. According to Baltimore police, the pair were tracked down by using the phone's GPS feature, and the 12-year-old robber was identified by the victim because he recognized the ankle monitor the pre-teen was wearing.
Just yesterday, the BPD caught a 15-year-old with a stolen gun in his possession.
Eastern District Juvenile Handgun Violation Arrest
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) October 29, 2024
On October 28, 2024 at approximately 10:04 p.m. Eastern District Action Team officers were conducting an investigation in the 1000 block of East 22nd Street.
This investigation led to the arrest of a 15-year-old male and the… pic.twitter.com/Sv3CxF7OIS
The tweet from police doesn't say if the teen was released from juvenile custody yet, but if that hasn't already happened my guess is he too will soon be sent home to his legal guardians and told to wear a GPS device.
Fox45 spoke with a DJS employee, who says ankle monitoring doesn't work.
"They’re able to cut it off easily. They’re able to let the ankle monitor die," said the employee.
Vincent Schiraldi, who heads up Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services, says 94.6% of teens on electronic monitoring or fitted with an ankle monitor complete their sentences without further incident, but defense attorney Jeremy Eldridge, who spoke to Fox45, says that's hardly a sign of a successful program.
Eldridge pointed to the number of instances that have been reported of young people committing crimes while wearing ankle monitors. The ankle monitor has to be functional, there has to be someone watching the movement and compliance of the juvenile wearing the monitor, and the court system must be engaged to work to bring the juvenile back in compliance for the whole system to be considered successful, Eldridge said.
“If all of those cogs in that wheel, we have systemic failure which frankly, even with a 94% efficiency, if 6% isn’t working, the system is broken,” Eldridge said.
And that 94% figure is just for those teens who've been fitted with electronic monitoring. That amounts to just 223 juveniles across the entire state of Maryland, according to Fox45. But in 2023 there were nearly 13,000 juvenile complaints, which suggests that the vast majority of juvenile offenders are being released without any monitoring whatsoever, even if they're accused or convicted of serious offenses.
The Democrats in Annapolis may claim to be concerned about violent crime, but they've got a funny way of fighting it: criminalizing the right to keep and bear arms and cutting young offenders an awful lot of slack, even when they're accused of violent offenses involving a gun. The good news is that the Supreme Court could soon address at least one of Maryland's draconian gun laws: the ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines. A decision striking down those infringements wouldn't help to restore sanity to the state's juvenile justice system, but it would at least put the Second Amendment on firmer footing, and put a check on lawmakers' abuse of power in trampling on a fundamental civil right.
