BELLEVUE, WA — Responding to Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young’s argument that he isn’t responsible for the city’s rising homicide rate because he’s “not committing the murders,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today fired right back, “Law-abiding gun owners aren’t committing murders, either.”

“Yet Mayor Young and his fellow Democrats continue pushing extremist gun control laws, which only penalize honest firearms owners,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Universal background checks, which Young supported from the moment he joined ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ two months ago, don’t prevent criminals from getting guns, and he should know that.

“Young’s hypocrisy and buck-passing shouldn’t surprise anybody,” Gottlieb continued. “He has quickly joined the ranks of liberal public officials playing the blame game; officials who refuse to take responsibility for the mayhem happening on their watch.”

Young became Baltimore’s mayor when Catherine Pugh stepped down earlier this year. Before that, he served on the city council for more than 20 years, eventually rising to the office of Council president. He told reporters Wednesday that the city’s leadership is not to blame for Baltimore’s rising murder rate. The Baltimore Sun reported the city has logged 296 murders so far this year.

“Jack Young has been a city official for more than two decades,” Gottlieb observed, “so you bet he’s part of the problem. Maryland has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, and in Baltimore it is virtually impossible for average citizens to get carry permits for personal and family protection.

“An honorable Democrat named Harry Truman had a sign on his desk,” Gottlieb recalled. “That sign said ‘The Buck Stops Here.’ So, Mayor Young, this rising violent crime is on you, not on honest gun owners in Maryland or anywhere else. So stop trying to pass the buck to private citizens who only want to exercise their constitutionally-protected rights, without having to jump through a bunch of hoops or get past all of the legislative roadbloacks you and your fellow Democrats want to put in their way.