A National Discussion

Two people were murdered in a mall in Columbia, MD, and the killer then shot himself.  A horrible tragedy, certainly a frightening event, and an example of senseless violence. We will probably learn more over the coming days about the three, my guess is this wasn’t random, that the killer targeted his victims for some reason.

Since January 1, there have been 19 homicides in Baltimore, and nearly 20 additional shootings that were not fatal.

Only one of these leads talking heads and politicians to proclaim we need to have a National Discussion.  A discussion about guns, violence, mental health, safety, domestic violence, and/or any number of other things.  But there’s no need for a discussion about the Baltimore murder rate in January.

Why?

Is it because no one wants a discussion about the failure of the welfare state, the failure of the drug war, the results of ongoing institutional poverty, the effects of a high rate of unwed/teen pregnancy, the dropout rate in Baltimore City schools, or is it not the narrative any of the talking heads want associated with politicians in Maryland?

Or do the dead people in Baltimore just not matter?

Filed under: Baltimore, Libertarian/Political Stuff Tagged: Baltimore Murder Rate, Columbia Mall Shooting