Where do I begin? The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that the state's mandatory five-year, no parole sentence for gun possession by certain convicted felons cannot stand ("Court voids gun penalty," July 12). As the article noted, "The Court of Appeals ruling in a Baltimore case erased a defendant's mandatory sentence and ordered him resentenced under a more lenient provision of the law."
Isn't it ironic that the case involves Baltimore, a city that is under siege, a city in which runs the blood of both the criminal and the innocent in its streets? It was a great scientific mind, that of Albert Einstein, that constructed the definition of insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting a different result." It would seem that we have tried the soft-handed, "lenient" approach to the resolution of our violent crime problem and it has failed, demonstrably so.
Have the Draconian new gun laws that have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the criminally inclined but rather on law-abiding gun owners, had any effect whatsoever on the recent spate of gun violence in Baltimore? Will the abolishment of the death penalty in Maryland only serve to further embolden those would-be murderers in Baltimore who now know that whatever they do, whomever they murder, their prospect of facing the "ultimate penalty" no longer exists?
The imposition of the death penalty in the case of cold-blooded murders is both justified and effective. Since most violent criminals, including our murderers, tend to be recidivists, the death penalty is a certain, sure and final "cure" for recidivism! And here's a hint for our comrade, Gov. Martin O'Malley: Criminals, by definition, do not obey laws!
The action by this so-called high court is despicable, especially so in consideration of the overwhelming violence that is destroying our cities, the deleterious effect of abolishing the death penalty and the laughable (and questionable) effort to control violent behavior involving the use of a gun by making laws that only law-abiding people will obey! Second Amendment rights organizations have for years enthusiastically supported the very same types of laws that this court has just effectively abolished. How do you protect victims by disarming them while at the same time removing laws that may very well have a deterrent effect on their assailants? Tell me, Comrade Governor O'Malley, just how do you do that?
How about this? Let's hold all of the members of the Court of Appeals who voted to abolish that law personally accountable. For instance, the first time that one of those "benefactors" of their insanity murders an innocent victim, each of them is indicted as a co-conspirator in that crime. Maybe they would give a little more thought to their arbitrary and capricious attacks upon the law-abiding citizens whom they are sworn to protect from these criminals!
One more passing thought: Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, but after a shooting, the problem is the gun?
Robert L. DiStefano, Abingdon