(June 2003) Press reports show spread of El Salvadoran gangs into Maryland. Federal officials describe them not as street thugs, but paramilitary guerrillas who utterly lack fear after having been trained by years of conflict in South America. At least when the Columbians killed it was only as part of a drug trade; the new gangs kill as part of their culture. One gang, known as MS-13, is already tied to shootings of kids in Beltsville. Officials who know the score quietly predict more attacks will follow, just as in other areas of the country after the gangs moved in. The deaths of several federal agents and local police are already attributed to encounters with MS-13 thugs.

Officials offer little public response to these growing reports. They continue dedicating resources to gun programs (like ballistic fingerprinting) and of course some agitate for Project Exile. That's the really chilling part: a coming wave of violence may sweep our area while police spend resources enforcing Glendening's gun control agenda.

Misallocation of resources and misplaced priorities hurt us all. We saw it last fall, when 'snipers' terrorized the DC metro area; people died while police tracked gun owners instead of answering the snipers' own contacts. Organizations will always invest their resources to maximize rewards, and that's especially true for police, who now are rewarded for grabbing guns. The administration's policy of 'cracking down on gun crime' is embraced by agenda-driven county officials who see expanded funding as both a vehicle and mandate to promote gun control.

Look at it from the police point of view: If Governor Ehrlich gives you funds to 'crack down on gun crime', and if your supervisors reward you for gun busts, and if the state's attorney will cheerfully inflate your 'crime fighting' record by prosecuting all gun owners you arrest, then you're not going to be picky about which gun laws you enforce. Any gun control will do, whether or not people you arrest have a connection to violent crime. What cop wouldn't? The fact that ruining the lives of some targets won't improve public safety is someone else's problem.

Of course it sure beats hunting MS-13 gang members who have a history of unpredictably assassinating cops. In fact, staking out gun shops solely patronized by people who are trying to obey the law probably looks pretty safe in comparison. Better make sure you don't run out of inadvertent non-violent gun technicalities to track down too.

Hold on to your rights and your wallet. If Salvadoran gangs spike violent crime rates as expected, officials will predictably blame it on your guns. We'll hear even louder clamoring for more gun control in the coming session.