-Caveat Lector- Wake Up, Maryland
This Article Was Published In The Montgomery County Journal http://www.mcsm.org/dirlik2.html Wake up, Maryland, and realize gun control fails By STEVE DIRLIK Let me provide an answer to State Sen. Ulysses Currie's viewpoint, "Gun laws reduce crime - so what are we waiting for?" (Feb. 7). We are waiting for objective and honest politicians who legislate based on fact, not fiction. We are waiting for compelling evidence that shows gun control has reduced crime somewhere, anywhere, including New Jersey, the lone jurisdiction Currie cites as proof that gun control works. Note that in Vermont, where citizens can legally carry a concealed firearm without a permit, the murder rate is half that of New Jersey's. The District of Columbia has been waiting 25 years for its complete handgun ban to reduce crime, but it hasn't happened yet. England has waited five years for its handgun prohibition to work, but crime has gone up, not down. There are similar documented failures in New York City, Chicago, Australia and elsewhere, but politicians simply ignore these failures to further their own political agendas while pandering for the votes of their liberal constituents. Maryland has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the nation, yet as Currie himself noted, ``Maryland has the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of youth handgun killings." Note that Maryland is also No. 1 in robbery, No. 3 in murder and No. 4 in overall violent crime. Just across the Potomac River, however, Virginia's gun laws are so ``bad" that Virginians can legally sell each other handguns without background checks or waiting periods. Virginians also can carry concealed weapons. Yet Virginia's violent crime rate is much lower than Maryland's. Why? I'll answer that question, too. Virginia's legislature is not waiting for a gun-control miracle to somehow prevent criminals from committing crime. Unlike Maryland's legislature, they've realized that the only way to reduce crime is to actually put criminals in jail. Project Exile in Richmond is a well-documented example of how to reduce crime. Along the highways in Virginia, billboards give prospective criminals this stern warning: ``Illegal gun? Five years mandatory in a state prison." Regardless of what any judge or lawyer says, there is no parole, no plea bargain and no early release. This works. What doesn't work is Maryland's absurd revolving door of justice. ``In Maryland, a judge can reduce a sentence at any time, for any reason," according to the Journal article, ``Truth in sentencing: A justifiable and fair demand" by Del. Marilyn Goldwater, D- Bethesda. She notes: ``Maryland has the dubious distinction of being the only state that gives judges such complete latitude with sentence reconsideration." In recent years, this particular ``dubious distinction" lets Maryland judges release 1,100 criminals early and return 90 convicted murderers to our streets. One released murderer killed a policeman and a store clerk in Prince George's County, in Currie's district. This double-murderer served only 16 years of his double-life sentence. Does this make any sense? Maryland has the most lenient judges, the most lenient sentencing laws and the highest violent-crime rate. Is this merely a coincidence, or are these ``dubious distinctions" somehow related? I'll let Currie, D, ponder that question, while I pose yet another: Now that we know what works, and what doesn't, what are we really waiting for? If we sincerely want to reduce crime, we know that putting criminals away works, and gun control doesn't. We are waiting for Maryland citizens to make their political system work by voting out the politicians who are either too cynical to choose public safety over politics, or too stupid to recognize which policies actually reduce crime. Instead of working hard on crime-control policies to make their own constituents safe from criminals, Maryland's incumbents worked hard on redrawing district lines to keep their own seats safe from political challengers. It's our job to vote these guys out, and vote in politicians who have the courage to put criminals behind bars. We, at Montgomery Citizens for a Safer Maryland, are waiting for Maryland citizens to wake up. ------------------------------ Steve Dirlik is a member of and spokesman for Montgomery Citizens for a Safer Maryland, which opposes gun control as a means to reduce crime. He lives in Silver Spring. This Information Is From MCSM In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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