Leaders of Maryland and the District of Columbia are teaming up to root out the scourge of firearms making their way into the hands of criminals, but the new task force is missing a key regional partner: Virginia.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson on Friday announced the creation of the District of Columbia-Maryland Gun Task Force, a regional partnership to crack down on gun-trafficking and to prevent gun violence. District police recovered 2,656 illegal firearms in 2006, Fenty said, with most being traced back to Maryland and Virginia.
“Stopping the flow of illegal guns would dramatically reduce the homicide rate and, most importantly, save lives,” Fenty said during a news conference outside the Seventh District MPD headquarters in Southeast.
Both D.C. and Prince George’s have experienced a surge in gun violence this year. The task force will key on data sharing among jurisdictions, linking guns to dealers, cracking down on gun trafficking and developing a system to remove registered firearms from the homes of felons.
Maryland doesn’t need tougher gun laws, O’Malley said, but it demands tougher enforcement of existing controls.
“While we have some of the strongest gun laws in the nation, we have historically had some of the weakest enforcement of those laws,” the governor said.
While Maryland and D.C. are on the same page, Virginia was nowhere to be found. Fenty said he is “working collaboratively” with Gov. Timothy Kaine, but “what’s important for us is to move forward.”
