The state of Maryland has a problem. That problem is named “Baltimore.”

The city is a lot of things, but one of those is that it’s the epicenter for crime in the state. Much of what we see enacted by the legislature regarding guns is driven, at least in part, by the violence in that particular city.

So, the state has, in fact, passed a lot of gun control over the years. Maybe not to California levels, but a lot.

And it seems it hasn’t done a bit of good.

So far this year in Baltimore City, over 30 juveniles have been shot and injured.

The latest victim, a 14-year-old female, was shot Sunday afternoon in the 1900 block of McCulloh Street.

Baltimore police said the suspected shooter is a male juvenile.

On Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Richard Whorley speaking at City Hall regarding another female teen shot earlier that morning.

…

Year to date, 17 juveniles have been arrested with ghost guns, 11 of those were 15 years old, while at least three were 13 years old.

Of course, officials say there’s a profound problem of teenagers with firearms, but the only numbers we get are of so-called ghost guns. Considering the city has over 576,000 people, I’m pretty sure those 17 juveniles with “ghost guns” aren’t the bulk of the problem.

This means there are a lot more underage people owning and carrying guns in the city than has been expressed in this news story.

Yet I don’t see how that could be possible since I have it on good authority that gun control works.

For example, Maryland has universal background checks for both handguns and so-called assault weapons. That clearly doesn’t seem to be curtailing the flow of guns into juvenile hands in Baltimore, now does it?

In fact, so-called ghost guns were banned by the legislature. That ban went into effect earlier this year, yet here we are still talking about juveniles getting them.

It would seem that the ban in question accomplished absolutely nothing since kids are generally not going to be able to travel out of state easily in order to get the parts necessary to build their own guns. Someone, though, is bypassing the laws and still making these guns.

Baltimore has a problem with violent crime, but it seems clear that all the gun control in the world isn’t going to help them. That’s because criminals don’t obey the law. That’s for the law-abiding, which criminals aren’t. That’s the definition of a criminal, after all.

At some point, we need to come to terms with the fact that gun control isn’t the answer. All it does is interfere with law-abiding citizens and not with the bad guys who are supposedly being targeted.

There’s a reason many believe that’s a feature, not a bug. After all, how many times can you keep doing a thing and not getting results before you’re either labeled insane or you figure there’s another goal at play?

I tend to lean more toward insanity, myself, but I get it.

Baltimore is a case study in gun control’s failure and new gun laws won’t change that. Ever.