Well, we’re better than New Orleans or Los Angeles. When it comes to murders-by-firearm ratios. Sure, we’re at 80% of the homicides being fatal gunshots, but it could be much worse. New Orleans? 92% of homicides are caused by guns. But, where are these guns coming from? Aren’t guns supposed to be illegal in DC? Surely that ban is saving lives left and right! Well, it’s hard to say, honestly, because the MPD doesn’t exactly track why people were killed by firearms. Was it a bad-guy on bad-guy crime? Was it a drive-by that killed an innocent kid? Was it the police shooting a suspect? None of that is kept in the statistics.

Soon to be outgoing Police Chief Ramsey is busy blaming Maryland and Virginia for importing the guns to the District. “We have tough gun laws, but most of our guns are coming from Virginia and Maryland,” says Chief Ramsey in a article in the Washington Times on Friday. Well, let’s look for a second at the crime rates of neighboring areas.

MoCo: 19 murders in all of 2005. Their crime statistics group doesn’t break it down by method. That might be because there were only 19 murders in the whole county last year.

Prince George’s County: 135+ murders in 2006. Their crime statistics also don’t break out kinds of murders, only their mere numbers.

Arlington County: 5 murders. Right. Five. No breakdown on percentage of gun violence.

Alexandria City: 2 murders in 2004. There’s no statistics on 2005 yet, sadly.

Okay, so let’s see. What are the gun laws in Virginia? Here’s a handy reference. A short summary: You can buy one gun every 30 days in Virginia (not quite sure why you need more than one, but okay), and there are restrictions on who may buy them. You can apply for Concealed Carry in Virginia, provided you take training and pay for a license. What are the gun laws in Maryland? Well, like Virginia, you may buy one gun per 30 days. Like Virginia, you can apply for a concealed carry permit, but apparently results are mixed with actually getting them.

So, let’s see. DC is having gun violence because citizens of Virginia and Maryland can legally buy one gun per 30 days, and may need to get training in order to carry them in public. Sorry, Chief, that doesn’t fly with me. DC’s gun laws aren’t a deterrent to violent crime. The problem isn’t the laws or the guns, it’s the actual criminals that we’re either not preventing from committing the crime, or dealing with effectively once they’re in the system. It’s not helping that DC residents can’t carry to protect themselves, either. Yeah, I’m ready for the slew of “but think of the children!” and “what about accidental shootings?” But what I’m not ready for is the Chief of Police saying that gun laws in MD and VA are causing homicides with guns in the District. That’s a load of horseshit.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs