Baltimore leaders, including top cops, the mayor and the new state's attorney, are making their annual pilgrimage to Annapolis this afternoon to lobby for stronger gun laws. It's the sixth consecutive year of trying, and this time Baltimore officials are, so to speak, bringing out the big guns.
Scheduled to testify before a Senate committee are residents of crime-riddled city neighborhoods and a police officer who was shot on North Calvert Street. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has even unveiled a web site -- Safer City Baltimore -- to track gun legislation and read the text of the bills.
Last year's efforts failed, but bills actually got out of a house committee, and that in itself was considered a victory.
A proposal to extend the law making using a handgun in the commission of a felony to include all guns -- so that a person who robs a store with a rifle gets the same time as someone who robs a store with a handgun -- got widespread support. But a bill to extend being a felon in possession of a handgun to include all guns brought both bills crashing down. Opponents said it would unfairly punish felons who wanted to use rifles to hunt.
So now the city is back in Annapolis with new ideas. One proposal would create a minimum 18 month sentence for all defendants convicted of having an illegal, loaded firearm. Another would increase the maximum penalty for felons in possession of handguns to up to 15 years, but would give judges discretion by making it a 5 to 15 year penalty.
Just a few moments ago, city police announced more gun arrests on Twitter -- a handgun seizure on Gwynns Falls Parkway and .357 handgun recovered on Frankford Avenue in Northeast. In the picture above by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr., Rawlings-Blake talks about 76 illegal firearms that were seized in 10 days in July in Baltimore. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and ATF Special Agent in Charge Joseph Riel are shown (left to right) in the background.
City leaders have had a hard time trying to understand why it's so difficult to get legislation passed to help them make Baltimore safer. The hearing is at 1 p.m. Check back to The Baltimore Sun later, on-line and in print, to see how the the city's bad guys with guns plays out in Annapolis.
