Violence

Gov. Martin O'Malley has ordered the Maryland flag to be flown at half staff in memory of the victims of “the senseless acts of violence” at the Boston Marathon on Monday. The announcement follows a proclamation Tuesday from President Barack Obama, who ordered the U.S. flag flown at half-staff at federal buildings, military bases and embassies throughout the world “as a mark of respect” for the victims. The flags are to remain at half staff each day until sunset on Saturday.

As record heat baked Baltimore, a wave of violence unfurled across the city: six shootings and eight people wounded over a period of less than eight hours. The first shots were fired around dinnertime Wednesday, and the violence continued until after 2 a.m. Thursday. Police have no suspects in any of the crimes - which included two double shootings - and believe the seven wounded men and one injured woman will survive. Several academic studies of crime suggest that it's no coincidence that the outburst of violence came as the temperature at the Inner Harbor hit 96 degrees.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told parents, students and educators in Baltimore County on Wednesday that while Americans might not agree on gun control legislation, they must work together so that children can grow up without fear of violence in schools. At a town hall-style meeting before a packed auditorium at Loch Raven High School, Duncan said communities must have tough conversations to address the violence that has hit schools across the country - including those in the county that hosted him Wednesday.

I read with interest the article "Fight against abuse" (April 5). I applaud any effort to stop the horror of domestic violence. However, I am concerned that the article's content reinforces the old stereotype of men as the aggressors and women as the victims. Men are often the victims of their girlfriends or wives. Ned Holstein and Glenn Sacks ("The violence we ignore," July 16, 2009) cite a 2007 Harvard study that says, "according to both men's and women's accounts, 50 percent of the violence in their relationship was reciprocal (involving both parties)

With Gov. Martin O'Malley's landmark gun control bill given final approval by the Senate on Friday and waiting only the governor's signature to be enacted into law, Democrats in Annapolis are likely hoping that the next step will be talk of the "R" word. And we don't mean Ruger, Remington, revolvers or repeating rifles. Would you believe referendum? Oh, gun control advocates won't necessarily be happy about the prospect of seeing the gun legislation taken to referendum - it would, after all, delay the effective date for at least 18 months while the matter is decided by voters in November 2014 - but you can bet a lot of people on the Democratic side of the aisle would be ecstatic.

When Nancy Aiken talks to students in Baltimore's Orthodox Jewish community about domestic violence and sexual assaults, she asks the boys a simple question: How many of you want to grow up to be a perpetrator of violence? Aiken knows the students mean it when they say, 'No, not me.' But she also knows, statistically, that some will, indeed, become wife beaters or sexual predators. "There is only so much we can do to train our young women how not to be victims," said Aiken, executive director of the Counseling, Helpline and Aid Network for Abused Women, or CHANA.

Despite the national horror at the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, the effort in Congress to enact any meaningful legislation to address gun violence appears increasingly at risk. The first casualty of the gun lobby's efforts was the proposed reinstatement of the assault weapons ban. And now even the idea of extending background checks to gun shows and private sales appears to be in trouble. As each day passes, it seems, the memory of the Newtown massacre fades, and so does the will to act. That makes the votes on Gov. Martin O'Malley's gun violence legislation Friday in two House of Delegates Committees all the more significant.

A reality of the far-reaching gun regulations approved by committees in the House of Delegates on Friday night: Marylanders likely will buy more assault-style weapons in the next six months than they would have without a new law. In fact, it seems like the current version of the legislation encourages sales. Gun dealers would be allowed to sell out their present inventories of assault-style rifles even after the ban takes effect Oct. 1. If a Marylander just places an order for such a gun before then, he could still legally own it. You might ask: If something warrants banning, why wait six months to implement it?

Every year, police in Baltimore City respond to thousands of calls related to domestic violence. Officers arrest and charge abusive partners, judges issue protective orders to women who fear for their lives, and domestic violence counselors struggle to help battered women and their children recover from the physical and emotional traumas they have suffered. Yet despite the resources of time, money and manpower invested in these efforts, the killing hasn't stopped, or even slowed appreciably.

The Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence will receive a $1 million Department of Justice grant to expand a program that identifies women who are at high risk of domestic violence, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said Wednesday. The statewide initiative trains police and hospital staff to assess the possibility of domestic violence homicides when they first confront victims and quickly direct those women to shelters or other services. Vice President Joe Biden mentioned the effort during an event in Montgomery County this month.