Maryland House of Delegates, students, and concerned locals came together last Thursday in the University Student Center as they discussed their hopes for change in gun control throughout the city.

Baltimore City has been known to have an enriching history, but in recent years it has gained the reputation of being one of the most dangerous cities in America. Although the city’s gun violence has been on the rise, there have been constant debates around stricter gun control laws and whether or not they will be useful in the future.

The panel discussion was moderated by Malwan Johnson, graduate of Towson University, and International Director of Social Action for Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. The panel discussion ranged from gun safety to mandatory liability insurance for gun owners.

Elizabeth Embry, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates for District 43, shared some information on mandatory liability insurance and how Maryland has tried to pass the bill in previous years.

“There were bills that were introduced in Maryland and nine other states but they did not pass,” she said. “Last year the city of San Jose passed the first gun owner liability requirement in the country, although it’s brand new it’s been challenged by some of the organizations that support the Second Amendment.”

According to the Gun Control Act, the legal age to purchase a firearm and ammunition for shotguns and rifles is 18 years old. However, in the state of Maryland, a new law has been passed to raise the age limit for purchasing firearms, as well as prohibit people from carrying a gun in certain locations.

“A person may not knowingly wear, carry, or transport a firearm onto the real property of another unless the other has given express permission, either to the person or to the public generally, to wear, carry, or transport a firearm on the real property,” the Maryland Senate ruled.

Toriel Sims, a junior physical therapy major with a minor in biology and technology, is Morgan’s Miss Phi Beta Sigma for the Gamma chapter. Sims weighed in on the lifted age restrictions and gave testimony to her experience of domestic abuse.

“I am 20 years old and I am not able to purchase a handgun but I was also a victim of domestic abuse,” she said. “I was in Brooklyn, New York at that time and I wasn’t able to buy a gun, but if I had lived in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, I would’ve been able to buy a gun at a Walmart.”

Sims agreed that if she had been allowed to buy a gun, she would have thrown away her future and that the lifted age restrictions should constantly be enforced.

However, Federal Law Enforcement Officer DeMario Jordan had plenty to say about the lifted age restrictions in Maryland.

“A firearm is a tool and it does not become a weapon until it is used as such, for an assault to happen someone has to do the action,” he said. “I joined the United States Navy when I was 17 and a half, and I was trained to use a firearm because my country trained me to protect the people that we care about. If you can say that an 18-year-old can go and put themselves in harm’s way for you, then why can’t they be able to defend themselves,” he said.

The number of mass shootings in the United States has risen significantly in recent years and the panel discussed whether having armed guards and arming teachers would be the answer to America’s longstanding problem of school shootings.

William Tipper Thomas, a philanthropist and school shooting survivor gave insight on why that idea was not a good one.  

“There were supposed to be two-armed security guards on campus when my attack happened, and they weren’t on campus when the incident occurred,’’ he said. “I think the more guns that are present could potentially lead to more incidents whether intentional or accidental.”

Thomas said when the officers were on campus the perpetrators governed themselves accordingly, but they also didn’t have their weapons on them until the fight had started.

Luke Clippinger, a member of the House of Delegates for District 46 and chairperson for the judiciary committee also disagreed with the idea of having armed guards and teachers in schools.

“I think that this is what troubles me. I’ve been chair of the judiciary committee for six years, and some of the things that we hear is [that] there’s no way to protect the people there who can return fire if somebody comes in with a firearm,” he said.

“What kind of world do we want to live in?” said Clippinger. “I think of the argument as the gun being a tool, and there’s no question though that a gun is also a projection of force,” he said.

Throughout the night the conversation steered from mass shootings and gun violence in urban neighborhoods to the question of if suicide should be considered a form of gun violence.

According to the Pew Research Center, studies have shown that 54% of suicides made up more than half of gun-related deaths in the United States in 2021. Jazz M. Lewis,  member of the Maryland House of Delegates for District 24 shared insight on suicide and mental health issues.

“It’s pervasive and it’s one of the preferred methods of suicide particularly for men,” he said.

Although suicide has proved to be one of the leading causes of gun violence in the United States, many victims of suicide chose to be killed by the police as a new method of ending their lives.

 “It’s not just by them potentially shooting themselves, but it’s also known as suicide by cop which also intersects with mental health issues,” said Lewis.

Embry agreed as she noted that suicide among young Black men has increased since the beginning of COVID-19.  

“It used to be that white males were more likely to kill themselves and by a pretty significant amount. That’s no longer true, and suicide rates among young Black men have been increasing during COVID,” she said.

Concerned citizen Roslyn Mickens, a special needs educator and licensed firearm instructor had more questions for the panel and she shared her frustrations about gun reform in the city.

“You guys need to go and see who is buying what because we need to understand that we’re given a false [idea] that guns are bad and that you shouldn’t touch a firearm,” she said.

She continued, “What do we do, especially as single women, when someone breaks into our apartment at two o’clock in the morning?”  “This is a reality that many of us have had to deal with and we are our own first line of defense because Superman does not exist.”