Sheila-Dixon isn't the brightest

Baltimore seeks tougher gun laws

"If these bills pass, people will soon realize that Baltimore and the state of Maryland are the worst places in the world for gun crimes," Dixon said in an interview yesterday. "That's what I want because, in other cities, crime is going down while we have not changed, and we've got to."

Ok, but how does charging someone who's had their property stolen help fight crime? How about finding the guy who stole the gun rather than making the victim a criminal under the law? Let's take the word "gun" out of the equation. Someone has stolen my property and Ms. Dixon wants to victimize me again by charging me with a crime.

They want to make it easier to define someone as a "gang member" and allow prosecutors to seize that persons assets. Hmm, I don't see any potential for abuse of that law..... nope, none at all.

"People have a constitutional right to own a firearm, but just like a owning a car, rights come with responsibility," he said. "If your car is stolen, you report it. If you have a gun stolen, you should think to report it."

Right. It obviously makes sense to report any theft of your property. It's an entirely different matter however, to FORCE victims to report theft under penalty of law. If they're going to compare this with cars I'd better see identical legislation requring reporting your car stolen within 72 hours. That would never happen of course, because people would be outraged at such a law.

This law also specifically targets law-abiding gun owners. You can't compel a felon with an illegal gun to report it stolen because that would violate his 5th Amendment right. I thought laws were supposed to target criminals?