City Council fails to make Baltimore safe — again

Once again our city’s leadership has failed to take bold steps to make our city a more safe place to live and work (“Baltimore reaches 200 homicide mark for 2017,” July 26). It’s a shame that we could not have a public referendum on the mandatory gun sentencing law (one year mandatory sentencing for possession of an illegal gun), which would certainly pass.

The most common rationale cited for voting against the measure was that it would cause harm to not only those criminals who cause our nation-leading per capita homicide rate, but also to those “potential victims” of this criminal element who possess a gun as a safety measure to protect themselves.

I’m sure that a large percentage of our homicide victims have, in fact, been in possession of a gun and likely an illegal one. It didn’t stop them from getting killed. And any “mother fearing for her family” who possesses an illegal gun is certainly not going to prevent a criminal from killing her or her family members if that is their intent.

Second, if any resident fearing for their safety wants a gun, they are legally entitled to get one, assuming they can pass a background check. If they are unable to pass a background check, then our law says they shouldn’t have a gun in the first place.

It is now universally accepted (as cited by Mayor Catherine Pugh and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis) that passage of the mandatory sentencing for possession of an illegal gun would have deterred criminals and would have reduced our alarming homicide and gun-crime rate. This act of disregard for the safety of the majority of city residents, businesses and visitors is appalling and will not go unnoticed by our federal leaders or the rest of the country, which already has a negative view of Baltimore as an unsafe, crime-ridden city.