Baltimore mayor pushes to get illegal guns off street after mass shooting: 'we need accountability'

BALTIMORE - Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is pleading to get illegal guns off the streets after a shooting in the Brooklyn neighborhood took two lives and injured dozens more.

 This year alone, the mayor said Sunday, Baltimore police have seized 1,343 illegal guns.

"They were in the hands of people who should not have had them, that had them anyway because they are so easy to obtain," Mayor Scott.

Around midnight Sunday morning, 30 people between the ages of 13 to 32 were shot, and 15 of them were minors.

Police said two 13-year-olds, a 14-year-old, three 15-year-olds, five 16-year-olds, four 17-year-olds, five 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old, a 22-year-old, a 23-year-old, a 31-year-old and a 32-year-old were wounded.  

The two killed were 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzales and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi, according to police.

Mayor Scott, and other leaders, say these illegal guns are coming from out of state.

"That choice was given to them because of the access to illegal guns. Where do most of the guns in Baltimore come from? They come from outside of Maryland," Mayor Scott said. "We have to do it at the national level as well."

Mayor Scott challenged gun manufacturers, and those selling "ghost guns," to keep the weapons out of the hands of those who want to illegally possess them. 

"We need accountability at every level from those who are selling and trafficking those weapons into Baltimore to companies who manufacture guns that skirt guns into our community," the mayor said.

in May, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed gun control bills with stricter requirements.

One of the bills signed by the governor generally prohibits a person from wearing, carrying or transporting a gun in an "area for children or vulnerable adults," like a school or health care facility. The new law, which takes effect Oct. 1, also prohibits a person from carrying a firearm in a "government or public infrastructure area," or a "special purpose area," which is defined as a place licensed to sell alcohol, cannabis, a stadium, museum, racetrack or casino.

The law also prohibits a person carrying a firearm from entering someone's home or property, unless the owner has given permission. There are exemptions for law enforcement, security guards and members of the military.

A separate measure signed by the governor changes and expand requirements and procedures that relate to the issuance and renewal of a permit to wear, carry or transport a handgun.

The governor also signed into law another bill that strengthens storage requirements for firearms. Under the law, a person can't store a loaded firearm in a place where the person knew or should have known that an unsupervised minor has access to a gun. It's known as Jaelynn's Law. The law is named after 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey, who was killed in 2018 at Great Mills High School by a 17-year-old student who used his father's gun.

"We've done what we could at the state level, find ways for it to be harder for them to get guns in people's hands," said Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson. "This is the problem with too many guns in too many hands of people that make life-and-death decisions. It is not OK. This is a societal problem we are dealing with, a mass shooting. This is insanity. This cannot be the society we are expected to live in. We have to do better."