Analysis Shows Gun Control Has Failed In Baltimore

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Maryland has worked hard to become an anti-gun state, and I understand why. If you’re someone who believes gun control works and you’re in a state with a violent city like Baltimore, you’re going to do what you think will work to try and stem the tide of violence.

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However, it hasn’t worked.

Moreover, now a data analyst has broken down the data regarding violence–specifically gun violence–in the city and compared it to other cities as well as using Giffords’ grades for each.

What he found was…interesting.

Baltimore and Washington DC are close in both proximity and population with 614,664 vs. 681,170 residents respectively. Violent crime of all types increased by 13 percent in Baltimore, but decreased by -15% in Washington DC. In fact, Washington DC’s crime decreased across the board: murders -16%, robberies -25%, and assaults -6%.

A one-quarter decrease in robberies is unprecedented. It happened only after the courts required Washington DC to end many of its restrictions on firearms and become a shall issue jurisdiction for handgun permits. Contrast this to Baltimore which has seen violent crime continue to rise in all categories by 13%.

In Baltimore, crime increased across the board: murders 8%, robberies 12%, and assaults 13%. Baltimore has three times the number of murders as Washington DC and twice as many assaults and robberies.

Philadelphia is more than twice the size of Baltimore in population and more than 1.5 times the size in land area; yet Baltimore had twenty six more murders, and a comparable number of robberies and assaults. Philadelphia has a Giffords gun grade of a “C+”, while Baltimore has a Giffords grade of “A-“.

When Giffords raised the Las Vegas grade from an “F” in 2017 to a “D” in 2018, the number of murders in Las Vegas increased by 30% from 158 to 205. When Portland Oregon had its grade raised from a “C” to a “C+”, murders rose by (71.4%), from 14 to 24, and it suffered an additional 59 robberies and an additional 68 assaults.

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There’s a whole lot more, and I encourage you to read the whole thing.

This is just another example of how gun control is a complete and total failure. For gun rights proponents, this is hardly new. We’ve known this for some time.

However, here are the hard numbers.

Oh, I’m sure the anti-gun crowd will reject this data just as it rejects any information that disproves their pet theories about the effectiveness of gun control, but that doesn’t change reality.

An armed society is a polite society. It’s also a law-abiding one, by and large.

There are always going to be those who want to prey on the weak. The problem comes for them when their prey has teeth of their own. It changes the whole dynamic, which means they have to change the calculus of going after the weak.

It becomes herd immunity against crime.

But anti-gunners don’t get it. They’ll keep pushing their anti-gun agenda and claim it’s about public safety when it’s not.

What’s funny is how many anti-gunners will get outraged over accusations that they’re tyrants, but not understand that it’s meant as something of a compliment. After all, they’re either idiots or dictators in the making. They may be smart in their tactics.

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But, I think we give too many of them too much credit.

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