Baltimore, Maryland had a wonderful experience, something that wasn’t normal for the city. They managed to go through an entire weekend without a murder, apparently. A whole weekend! They did it!

After having written about so many failed attempts at this feat in Charm City, it would be editorial malfeasance not to recognize an astounding success. The residents of Baltimore, led largely by mothers of children lost to gang violence and local church leaders, have been trying to organize a ceasefire in the gang wars and deliver a three day weekend where no homicides took place. And this weekend they pulled it off. From Friday until Sunday night, the city went 72 hours with no killings. (CBS Baltimore)

The latest ceasefire weekend in Baltimore has ended with no homicides reported in the city in the last 72 hours.

Organizers are now using this momentum to try and curb the violent running rampant in the city.

In the middle of a frigid Baltimore winter, Michael Haynie is part of a force armed with signs of hope in the city’s fight against violence.

“The community has to go out into the community. We can’t rely only on the police and departmental agencies,” Haynie said.

I want to assure you that despite my normal penchant for snark and tongue in cheek humor, there is none of that in play here today. The members of Baltimore Ceasefire deserve all the credit in the world. The idea of 72 murder-free hours is something much of the country, particularly in more suburban and rural areas, simply take for granted. Not so in Baltimore. They had 341 killings last year and were already up to 26 in the first five weeks of 2018, so this is actually a remarkable moment.

I’m going to agree with Hot Air‘s Jazz Shaw on this; they do deserve some serious credit for their work.

However, I can’t help but look at this and just shake my head. The governments of Baltimore and Maryland have passed more and more gun control legislation in an effort to curb violence, and they’ve accomplished absolutely nothing. They’ve managed to simply make it harder for law-abiding gun owners rather than really impact the criminals.

It took Baltimore Ceasefire to make a difference apparently. That’s a shame.

Unfortunately, I fear this is short-lived. That’s because signs and protests can have some impact, but it only goes so far. As I’ve said time and time again, it’s important to look at the underlying issues regarding violence, rather than the tools. Baltimore Ceasefire attacked violence itself, not weapons, and that’s part of why they were successful. We need more of that kind of focus, and not just in Baltimore.

While I don’t think this will be a long-lasting change, I hope I’m wrong. I hope Baltimore Ceasefire’s efforts provide the real roadmap to ending violence in our cities. They’ve done a wonderful thing, and I’d love to see them keep doing it.

They deserve some applause for what they’ve done so far because it’s done more than all the pointless gun laws in Maryland put together.