Republican leaders have repeatedly criticized Democratic mayors for their soft stance on crime, and now Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has given them even more ammunition. During a recent appearance on CNN, Scott harshly criticized the several Republican-led states that consistently contribute to Baltimore’s gun violence, despite the city’s stringent gun laws.
“We know that most guns that are recoverd [in Baltimore] come from other states,” Scott said. “The other 50 states then in Maryland combined. So we know that’s how it happens.”
Unfortunately, none of Scott’s emergency measures are likely to be effective at curbing the city’s gun violence. After all, Baltimore was recently declared one of the most dangerous cities in America, and Maryland’s governor has only recently signed a series of gun control measures into place.
At the same time, Democrats like Scott refuse to accept any responsibility for the damage that their policies are doing to the City. Instead, they blame the gun violence on the legal gun owners in other states – something that the GOP has long maintained is merely an excuse for their soft on crime approach.
This has been especially evident in Baltimore, where Mayor Scott has pleaded with the Biden administration to ignore decades of Democratic inaction on gun violence and begin to address the issue of illegal gun trafficking nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Republicans have continually advocated for gun rights and the 2nd Amendment. They argue that stringent gun control laws can’t possibly contain Baltimore’s gun violence, when so many illegal guns are easily available in neighboring states.
It is clear that the Democratic Party’s ineffective strategies can’t solve the problem of gun violence in Baltimore. The only way to do that is to enforce meaningful federal gun control laws across the nation. Unless Democrats accept their share of responsibility for the consequences of their policies then the people of Baltimore will continue to suffer from the gun violence in their city.