August 9, 2007

Dear Carroll County Times Editor:

     Please accept my compliments for your comprehensive and even-handed spread Sunday on our right as Americans to keep and bear arms. I enjoyed talking at length with your reporter about this important issue, but was surprised that your article, “Attempts to Change Maryland Law Defeated,” did not include the point I was trying to make. I want to set the facts straight.

     Data from across the nation and here in Maryland show that we have the least crime in areas where we have the most legal gun ownership. Western Maryland is a case in point.

     Conversely, in areas where gun control advocates have been particularly active, violent crime is common. According to FBI crime statistics released in June, Baltimore's homicide rate last year was higher than all of the nation's other largest cities, with the exception of Detroit. Keeping handguns away from law-abiding citizens does nothing to solve this crisis.

     Thomas Jefferson once quoted an 18th Century criminologist as saying, “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

     Any victim of violent crime today would agree, and so do I. That’s why I always have been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Thank you for letting me have my say.

Sincerely,

                  
Susan W. Krebs
Delegate, District 9B