Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy testified Thursday for four bills on firearms they said would help keep gun offenders off the street.
In prepared testimony for the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Dixon noted that half thehomicide suspects in the city last year had a prior gun offense, and 20 percent of them had had multiple gun offenses. Four out five homicides in the city are committed with guns.
One bill reduces the amount of “good time” credits for someone serving the mandatory five-year sentence for a gun offense, so that they would have to serve at least three years and two months in prison.
A second bill would prohibit granting bail to anyone charged with a gun offense that has a prior conviction.
A third bill would ban the possession of a firearm by anyone who is the subject of a final protective order related to domestic violence and abuse.
A fourth bill would require all gun owners to report a stolen weapon within 72 hours of the theft or face a misdemeanor for failure to do so.
Dixon said 46 guns were reported stolen in Baltimore in the past six months, but in the same time period, the city?s Gun Trace Task Force interviewed 26 people whose guns were used in crimes but had never reported them missing to police.
