When the Supreme Court struck down "may issue" carry laws nearly three years ago, gun control activists assured us that violent crime was going to increase as a result. Instead, most cities and states are reporting steep declines in crimes; including Baltimore, where homicides and non-fatal shootings are down by more than 25% compared to this point in 2024. In fact, according to a press release from Mayor Brandon Scott earlier this month, Baltimore has seen the lowest number of homicides to start a year in recorded history.

I'm not going to give all the credit to the demise of Maryand's "may issue" laws and the influx of tens of thousands of concealed carry licensees, but it certainly hasn't hurt. For decades, only a handful of Maryland residents were issued carry permits each year, but now average citizens can bear arms in self-defense, and it's having an impact: not only in terms of crimes committed, but in the number of crimes that have been stopped by people now able to protect themselves. 

A rabbi armed with a gun scared off his attackers as they assaulted him and tried to steal his car Saturday night in Northwest Baltimore.

City police said officers were called around 9 p.m. Saturday to the 7100 block of Park Heights Avenue, where a 62-year-old man was taking trash out.

Police said two men approached the victim, assaulted him, knocked him to the ground and tried to steal his car. When the assailants couldn't start the car, they tried to again assault the victim, who drew a gun and pointed it at them. The assailants ran off.

Police said the victim has a valid handgun permit and was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

According to the city council member who represents the area where the rabbi lives, the armed citizen was still "dressed in in all of his attire coming from synagogue" when he was assaulted, which strongly suggests that he already had his gun on him as he arrived home from the synagogue. That would have been a legal impossibility just a few years ago, when Maryland residents had to prove a "justifiable need" to carry a firearm. A generalized desire to be able to protect yourself in a dangerous city wasn't deemed a good enough reason to acquire a carry permit, so even when Baltimore was routinely seeing more than 300 murders a year the average citizen was prohibited from exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms. 

Maryland still doesn't make it easy to keep or carry a gun for self-defense. In order to have a handgun in the home, buyers must first obtain a Handgun Qualification Permit, which requires a mandatory training course and a live-fire test at a range. The state also imposes a 7-day waiting period on the transfer of many firearms, including handguns. Acquiring a license to carry involves a 16-hour training course with another round of live-fire testing, and even when someone does obtain a permit there are many publicly accessible places where lawful carry is prohibited. 

Despite all of those restrictions the number of concealed carry holders is much higher than it was in the "may issue" days, and the state is a much safer place as well. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so, but at the very least anti-gunners' predictions that "shall issue" would lead to an explosion of violent crime has been proven false.