MD Gun Violence Prevention Groups Wage Campaigns To Reduce Gun Deaths

MARYLAND — With an increase in gun deaths across Maryland and a spike in gun sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, gun violence prevention advocates are putting an extra emphasis on firearm safety campaigns and working for strong policy outcomes from the upcoming 2023 Maryland legislative session.

Advocates emphasize that statewide initiatives, such as the creation of a state-level gun prevention office and laws prohibiting carrying firearms in certain public places, would be key to addressing gun violence and deaths. But gun safety education efforts in communities across Maryland also play an important role in preventing accidental deaths and suicides.

Earlier this year, advocates in Maryland claimed a victory when Gov. Larry Hogan allowed the state’s new “Ghost Gun” legislation to take effect. The law prohibits the sale and possession of untraceable firearms known as ghost guns.

Karen Herren, legislative director for Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, said she found Hogan’s decision to let the ghost gun bill become law “somewhat stunning,” especially for a governor who has vetoed other gun safety legislation and kept his distance from working with gun violence prevention groups in the state.

After the victory on untraceable firearms in the Maryland General Assembly, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to gun violence prevention advocates when it issued a decision in June that overturned a New York law that said anyone wanting to carry a handgun in public places had to show a special need.

In his majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argued the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment because it prevents “law-abiding citizens” from exercising their Second Amendment right to carry guns in public for self-defense.

After the Supreme Court ruling, Hogan directed Maryland State Police to stop enforcing a state gun law — similar to the New York law that was overturned — that sets restrictions on concealed carry handgun permits.

While she disagreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling, Herren said the decision still gives states like Maryland room to maneuver.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed the doctrine of “sensitive places,” and specified that polling places fit in that category. Each of the justices agreed that it is “settled” that there are “‘sensitive places’ where carrying guns could be prohibited consistent with the Second Amendment.”

Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence also noted how strict gun laws in the District of Columbia may have prevented greater violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

"It is widely believed that the events of January 6 were very much mitigated by D.C.’s strong gun laws," the group said in an information sheet for state candidates in Maryland on strategies to reduce gun violence. "To protect our democracy and to limit the potential for events escalating to deadly violence during upcoming elections, we seek to prohibit the carrying of firearms at or near polling sites."

Now that Maryland’s requirement that a person must have a “good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun has been ruled unconstitutional, the groups said they will be pushing state lawmakers to prohibit gun ownership by people who have demonstrated a propensity for violence. They also want the General Assembly to identify “sensitive places” where guns will be prohibited.

“2023 is shaping up to be a very important year for gun violence prevention efforts in Maryland,” Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence and other groups in the state said in a joint statement on how to move forward after the Supreme Court’s decision in the New York case. “Gun violence is taking a heavy toll in our state.”

Surge In Gun Death, Gun Purchases

Across the country, gun deaths have surged since the start of the pandemic, reaching 48,832 in 2021, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the highest single-year tally on record, up 8 percent from the previous record in 2020, when 45,222 people died of gunshot wounds, The Trace reported last week.

According to CDC data, Maryland saw a 6 percent increase in firearms deaths in 2020 versus 2019. In 2020, there were 803 gun deaths in Maryland compared to 757 in 2019, according to the CDC.

Because there’s a lag in the CDC releasing state data, Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence use Gun Violence Archive data to calculate more recent gun deaths in Maryland. They found that Maryland gun deaths increased to 969 in 2021. Through July 20, 2022, gun deaths in the state totaled 461.

Along with the rise in gun-related deaths, 2020 was a year of record gun sales. Millions of people across the U.S., including many first-time purchasers, bought guns. Tens of thousands of these new guns turned up at crime scenes across the country, almost twice as many as in 2019, according to The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

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“While it remains to be seen whether this surge in gun purchases contributed to the rise in gun violence over the long term, a strong body of research has identified drivers of gun violence — namely, easy access to guns and weaknesses in our country’s laws that create a patchwork of gun regulations,” the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center said in a report released in April.

At the state level, Maryland saw a dramatic spike in FBI firearm background checks in 2020, compared to 2019. The FBI reported 92,739 firearm background checks in 2020, up from 40,927 in 2019 and 31,341 in 2018. This number does not represent the number of gun sales, but is indicative of firearm demand.

In 2021, firearm background checks in Maryland totaled 66,494, about 26,000 fewer checks than in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, but still far higher than the number of background checks in 2019. Through Aug. 31, 2022, the FBI had conducted 49,799 firearm background checks in Maryland.

Gun Safety Inside Homes

Gun violence prevention groups also continue to promote gun safety campaigns, like the End Family Fire and Asking Saves Kids programs, both created by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, for people who keep guns in their homes.

End Family Fire aims to educate the public on the importance of safe firearm storage. Family fire refers to shootings that cause injury or death and involve improperly stored or misused guns found in the home.

Lauren Kline, co-founder of the Montgomery County Brady Chapter, said the Asking Saves Kids program focuses on ways parents can make sure their children are visiting homes where firearms are safely stored.

"When we do a presentation, we do a role-playing of how a parent should approach the question with another parent about how their firearms are stored," Kline told Patch.

"Do you have weapons in the house?" and "Are they safely stored" are questions that can be asked, according to Kline.

Parents are encouraged to ask the questions in a non-confrontational and nonjudgmental, with the goal of making sure all the children in the home are safe, she said.

Kline said the Montgomery County chapter of Brady United Against Gun Violence is hoping to get the opportunity to work with Montgomery County Public Schools to introduce gun safety programs like End Family Fire and Asking Saving Kids.

More American children lost their lives to gun violence in 2020 than in any year before, as firearms-related deaths overtook motor vehicle fatalities for children 1-19. Most of the more than 4,350 U.S. children and young adults in that age group who died in firearms violence in 2020 — a 30 percent increase from 2019 — were not killed in mass shootings. Maryland was among the states where gun deaths increased.

In 2020, for example, a Maryland teen died from an accidental shooting on Christmas Day. Authorities said the victim and two other young relatives were handling a gun when it discharged, WBAL-TV reported. Police said a 13-year-old was in possession of the gun when it fired.

Also, in communities with high rates of gun violence, "We have children who are exposed to trauma at an early age. They are most likely to be the victims or perpetrators of violence in the future," Herren said.

In their advocacy work, Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence and Brady United Against Gun Violence also highlight how far more people kill themselves with a firearm each year than are murdered with one. Gun suicides make up two-thirds of all gun deaths.

"A great myth that gun suicide cannot be prevented is another hindrance in finding sensible solutions that will save lives," Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence says. "We must work to end not only the epidemic of gun suicide, but also the shame associated with it."

Another statistic that gun violence prevention groups cite in their efforts to promote safe storage of firearms and ammunition is that 90 percent of suicide attempts with a gun are successful.

"Given that suicide is so often an act in the moment, proper storage would really help mitigate access to the improperly stored firearms often used and save lives," Kline said.