Very strict gun laws (Shiz Valentine approved):
Baltimore sees more murders than New York City and Chicago, despite an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, and special fingerprinting and reporting requirements on handgun sales.
According to data analyzed by the Baltimore Sun Times, the overwhelming majority of guns used in Baltimore’s homicides in 2017 were illegally possessed.
Murder occurs so frequently in Baltimore that the number of homicides in the city is higher than the number in Philadelphia, even though Philadelphia is two and a half times the population.
Baltimore sees more murders than New York City and Chicago, despite an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, and special fingerprinting and reporting requirements on handgun sales.
In 2017, Baltimore set a new per-capita homicide record for roughly 56 killings per 100,000 people that some attribute to the opioid epidemic and an influx of illegal guns.
The violence in Baltimore has been so rampant that a fourth facility was built with $43.6 million in taxpayer money in 2010 to hold the dead before autopsies could be performed.
In 2016, it cost the city $344,000 to perform autopsies on homicide victims. It cost another $3.3 million to bury them. For the bodies that weren’t claimed by family, they were given to medical science and then cremated. The cost of cremation is borne by the state—and the benefits for education and research likely outweigh the costs.
Moreover, Baltimore was recently named the most dangerous city in America in 2017, a fact that was brushed aside by Mayor Catherine Pugh at a recent press conference.
