Some states with strictest gun laws also have most dangerous cities
WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — The question many people at the center of the gun debate are asking: What can we do to keep our children, our schools and our streets more safe?
At a recent rally in Palo Alto, Calif., students spoke out in favor of more gun control.
"I think that having more guns on the campus when guns are already the issue and just having more bullets present, is just going to make things worse," said student Shayan Hooshmand.
One of the top ten states with the most restrictive gun laws in the country is Illinois, where last year there were 650 murders in Chicago alone, according to a USA Today's compilation of crime data.
In Maryland, another state with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, Baltimore had 343 murders last year and has highest per capita murder rate in the nation. The city was also just named the most dangerous city in America by USA Today.
Leon Pinkett is a city councilman in West Baltimore, an area with one of the highest rates of violent crime.
“I represent a community that doesn’t just experienced trauma, we live in trauma. These guns aren’t licensed they aren’t permitted, there are no background checks they were never purchased legally,” Pinkett said in an interview Tuesday.
But Pinkett still believes stricter gun laws would help.
“We need to be looking strongly at permitting, licensing, and stricter background checks mental health and even should we be banning assault weapons,” he said.
Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan is for a different approach - cracking down on crime.
“We have multiple pieces of legislation to get tough on criminals who commit crimes with guns and repeat violent offenders and make sure they go to jail,” Hogan said.
