I recently wrote a blog that included data on gun violence.
I guess it is a sign of the times that the blog was hopelessly out of date by the time it appeared on NCR Today. The terrible shooting at the mall in Columbia, Md., occurred just after I had submitted my blog to NCR. Columbia is a suburb of both the Baltimore and the Washington, D.C., area. I mentioned in my blog that malls were one venue where shootings have been occurring.
The Baltimore Sun provided a list of 13 mall shootings that have occurred since 1995. Ten of those shootings have happened since 2005. In addition to the shooting at the Columbia mall, gun incidents are cited from Utah, Nebraska, Oregon and New Jersey.
Our malls are places we go to relax, shop, spend time with friends and share a bite to eat. We expect to be safe there. Many Maryland residents no longer have that expectation of safety. Some of those who were in that Columbia mall on Jan. 25 have suggested they may never return.
In addition, it is equally disturbing that in January, the city of Baltimore recorded a total of 27 homicides, almost one per day. This is almost twice the number of gun deaths Baltimore would expect to see in a typical January.
It is clear that the carnage is continuing in every conceivable corner of this country. What will it take to arouse the citizenry to action to stem the tide of this seemingly intractable problem?
