Baltimore Had Highest Homicide Rate of Any U.S. City in 2017
You mean gun control doesn’t work? <gasp>…
Baltimore has the highest homicide rate among big cities in the U.S., according to crime statistics released by the FBI.
The FBI data showed Baltimore’s homicide was the worst of any other U.S. city with a population over 500,000.
According to our media partners at The Baltimore Sun, the 342 homicides in the city last year resulted in a homicide rate of 56 per 100,000 people.
Strict Gun Laws Aren’t Fixing Baltimore’s Homicide Rate
Oldie but a goodie to accompany the above piece of new stats released by the FBI…
Maryland has some of the strictest gun control laws in the entire country. Not to be outdone, the City of Baltimore has also enacted a number of statutes limiting how and where people can possess or carry guns. For years, the city and state have adopted out most gun control ideas that were proposed.
This year, Baltimore was named the Most Dangerous City in America by USA Today for having the highest per capita murder rate. Gun violence and violent crime is so bad in Baltimore that, earlier this year, the city actually celebrated going 11 days without anyone being killed inside the city limits.
This proves an interesting paradox: the state with some of the country’s strictest gun laws is also home to the country’s most dangerous city. How is that possible? Like most policy debates, the answer depends on which side of the gun issue you fall on.
Maryland law requires a full license, including passing a comprehensive background check, just to own a handgun. To carry one in public, Marylanders need to prove to their local police chief that they have a “good and substantial reason” to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The bar for proving this is set so high that it is practically impossible for the average Marylander to be approved for a carry permit.
Mass Shooting Data Flawed and Lankford Refuses to Share
Are we even surprised?…
The old saying goes, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.”
When I research a topic for an article, I always keep a running list of my sources. Not only that but I also fact check my sources. That way if someone calls into question something I have written I can provide material evidence to where I have derived my data.
The ability to cite your sources become even more critical when you become a college professor. In an academic setting, any paper that is not peer-reviewed raises certain red flags. Non-verifiable information might be fine for a blog post, but not for a published academic article.
One of the most cited sources for information on mass shootings is Dr. Adam Lankford. Dr. Lankford is a criminology professor at the University of Alabama. Former President Obama and other left-leaning politicians have cited his research into gun violence to further their anti-gun agenda.
Sharp V. Becerra Moves to Federal Court
John Richardson over at the Polite Society Podcast updates us on the assault weapons lawsuit in CA…
In late August, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D-CA) moved to have the lawsuit against him and the California DOJ over their ineptness implementing the new registration of bullet button weapons moved to Federal court. One would have thought that he’d want to keep a suit against the California Department of Justice in state court.The case was moved to US District Court for the Eastern District of California and assigned to Judge Morrison England, Jr.Today, the plaintiffs which include a number of individuals and a number of civil rights organizations filed an amended complaint. Joining the plaintiffs is the Madison Society Foundation. The amended complaint also adds a Section 183 claim for deprivation of due process rights.
While I might have been tempted to just say “screw it”, all the individual plaintiffs spent hours trying to comply with the law requiring registration of their firearms. Some of the plaintiffs are IT professionals and tech savvy. Nonetheless, the database system was so screwed up, most of them were not able to do so. The response of Cal DOJ was “you procrastinated, so tough”.
Defense Distributed announced Tuesday that founder Cody Wilson had resigned from the company as of last Friday. The company is now under new leadership—Paloma Heindorff is taking over as director. Previously, Heindorff served as a vice president focused on development and operations during her three years with Defense Distributed.“He’s been an incredibly powerful figure, but this is about an idea,” Heindorff said when asked how the company will move on from its founder. “We believe in something, and that something isn’t one man—it’s an idea.”Wilson’s resignation comes after allegations of sexually assaulting an underage girl led to the 3D-printed gun activist’s arrest last Friday in Taiwan. Wilson had previously skipped his return flight from the country in a reported attempt to evade authorities. While overseas, Wilson posed as a student and attempted to make a down payment on a Taipei rental.
Florida authorities have released hundreds of new pages in the case of a white man accused of fatally shooting a black man in a parking lot dispute in July. According to a transcript of Michael Drejka’s interview with Pinellas County Sheriff’s detectives, he said that if Markeis McGlockton had retreated, or even stayed still, he wouldn’t have used his gun. But McGlockton’s girlfriend, who was a witness to the incident, said McGlockton moved back.
The 70-page interview of Drejka, who is charged with manslaughter, sheds light on his thinking in the seconds before the shooting.
Surveillance video from July 19 shows Drejka starting a confrontation over a parking space. McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, was seated in the couple’s car with two of their children, ages 3 years and 4 months.
Jacobs, whose interview with officers was in the newly released documents, said after parking, the 28-year-old McGlockton had gone into the store. That’s when another vehicle pulled up and a man later identified as Drejka got out and started looking at her car in the disabled spot, then started hassling her, saying, “‘Well, you need to move your car,’ and all this and this, you know, ‘Cause, you know, I got family that’s handicapped,’ and all this and this. So, I’m saying, ‘Dude, uh, no. I don’t know you, so, you know, leave me alone.'”