Gun Violence Prevention: Anne Arundel Plan Calls For Public Health, Firearm Safety Tactics

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Anne Arundel County released its gun violence prevention plan this week. The initiative calls for a public health approach and stronger firearm safety measures.

The county's Gun Violence Intervention Team led the push. County Executive Steuart Pittman formed the group in April 2019 to brainstorm solutions to local gun violence. The new prevention strategy incorporates data-driven recommendations from this workgroup.

“Our Gun Violence Intervention Team has done extraordinary work bringing all county agencies and residents together to confront gun violence as a public health crisis,” Pittman said in a press release. “While politicians across the country play games with this crisis, we in Anne Arundel County are working to save lives.”

Pittman unveiled the plan in Annapolis on Tuesday, which was the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper. That attack at The Capital claimed the lives of:

• Editorial Editor Gerald Fischman, 61
• News Editor and Columnist Robert Hiaasen, 59
• Sportswriter and Editor John McNamara, 56
• Sales Associate Rebecca Smith, 34
• Community News Reporter Wendi Winters, 65

Gun Violence Prevention Goals

Officials hope their plan will reduce violence in the future. The strategy has six goals:

• Lead and coordinate gun violence interventions in Anne Arundel County and the City of Annapolis
• Monitor and advance evidence-based gun laws
• Prevent gun violence through education and public awareness
• Collect and report data on gun-related incidents, injuries and deaths
• Disrupt cycles of community violence through engagement with community members and partners
• Coordinate a response process to support victims of gun violence

Those overarching goals break down into more specific subgoals. These subgoals include aspirations like creating resource lists, hosting community meetings and developing gun violence data dashboards.

Gun Safety Laws

The plan applauded existing state gun laws that prevent child access, require safe storage and mandate universal background checks. The Gun Violence Intervention Team also cheered Maryland's red flag law, which lets the courts temporarily take a person's firearms and prohibit further purchases during personal crises.

The group additionally welcomed the state's new law mandating that "ghost guns" have serial numbers. Ghost guns are firearms that are assembled from a kit, meaning the weapons don't have serial numbers. This loophole also lets the owners avoid background checks.

Police have trouble tracing gun owners after crimes if the weapons don't have serial numbers. Authorities hope the new requirement for serial numbers on ghost guns will reduce the anonymity previously guaranteed by the untrackable weapons.

The team similarly thanked Maryland for its legislation that orders gun owners to report missing firearms within 72 hours of them realizing the weapons are gone. The group, however, encouraged politicians to reduce this reporting window to 48 hours. It also suggested stronger laws to prevent child access.

The plan pointed out the county's new law that requires arms dealers to distribute literature on gun safety and training, suicide prevention, mental health and conflict resolution with every purchase.

Four gun dealers sued the county over this legislation, saying it violated their First Amendment freedom of speech rights. This threw a wrench in the implementation process.

Public Health Approach

Pittman declared gun violence a public health crisis in June 2021.

A total of 33 people died by gun suicide last year in Anne Arundel County. There were 10 gun homicides in 2021.

With complex factors causing gun violence, the county convened experts from multiple fields to develop this plan. The strategy included input from Anne Arundel County agencies, City of Annapolis offices, nonprofits, Anne Arundel Community College and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

“We recognize that guns are in society, but we must eliminate the violence that leads to countless deaths and injuries,” Health Officer Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman said. “At the root of this are difficult problems that require working in partnership with communities using evidence-based strategies. It’s a challenge our county is ready for.”

Pittman and Kalyanaraman announced their plan alongside Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley at the Guardians of the First Amendment Memorial. This downtown Annapolis monument pays tribute to the victims of the Capital Gazette shooting.

Leaders dedicated the memorial on last year's anniversary of the attack. The community remembered the lives lost with a wreath-laying ceremony on this year's anniversary.

The Anne Arundel County Department of Health posted the full gun violence prevention plan at aahealth.org/GVIT. The website is a one-stop hub that features the goals, data dashboards and resources.