Meet the new boss: Baltimore to get new anti-gun mayor

With Baltimore, Maryland's Mayor Sheila Dixon having been convicted (on the first count--she was indicted on eight eleven more counts) for corruption (stealing gift cards meant for the poor--stay classy, Sheila), Baltimore is about to get a new mayor (Dixon resigns tomorrow, as part of her plea deal).

(Soon to be Ex)-Mayor Dixon is a member of Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns (or, perhaps, Illegal Mayors Against Guns), and has made disarming the citizenry a central part of her political agenda (well, maybe not quite as central as stealing stuff).

Baltimore gun owners hoping for a mayor less hostile to them have little reason to be reassured by Dixon's successor, though. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, in fact, hopes to make all of Maryland's already draconian gun laws still more restrictive:

Baltimore's incoming mayor, Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, pressed Annapolis lawmakers to toughen state gun laws at a packed hearing Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, saying "we have to do more" to build on successes in reducing crime.

Specifically, she wants a law that "enhances" penalties for violent crimes that are committed with a handgun, to also "enhance" crimes committed with long guns.

Such laws (whether the handgun-only law now on the books, or the proposed expansion to cover long guns) take the curious position that beating someone to death with a baseball bat is less heinous than shooting him to death.

Strangely, in arguing for the expansion of the law to cover long guns, Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld seems (presumably by accident) to make that very point (my emphasis added).

Bealefeld said sentencing should not be dictated by a criminal's choice of weapon -- a choice that is increasingly a long gun, according to city statistics.

Indeed, Fred, sentencing should not be dictated by the criminal's choice of weapon--be it a gun, a knife, a beer bottle, a bikini top, a railroad tie (or wooden board, depending on the account), etc.