Baltimore Maryland –-(Ammoland.com)- Baltimore City Police arrested a Baltimore City man who was ringing in the New Year by firing his Hi-Point C9 handgun into the air.
Gary Watts, 44-years old, was apprehended shortly after midnight by the Eastern District Action Team officers who were on patrol in the area.
The Baltimore Action Teams are at work in the city’s most violent areas. These teams patrol in uniform and these units do not respond to calls for service. The officers personally witnessed Watts firing his “Muddy Girl Camo” 9mm handgun into the air. They moved in and arrested him on multiple firearms violation.
The Hi-Point police recovered from the scene had the serial number filed off of the frame. In addition to the pistol, police also found that Watts was in possession of a .44 magnum revolver, and a DPMS AR-15. Watts had all his guns loaded.
It appears that Watts may have also fired the AR-15. Police were able to recover seven spent rifle casings from the scene of the celebratory gunfire. Watts was also in possession of a 30-round magazine for the AR-15, which is also illegal under Maryland law.
Watts wasn’t the only person in Baltimore that was celebrating on New Year’s Eve by firing a gun into the air. Just blocks away from where police arrested Watts, a 14-year-old boy was grazed in the head by a bullet that an unknown suspect shot into the air. Police do not think the two cases are connected.
There were several other cases of celebratory gunfire within the city. In those cases, the gunfire didn’t hurt anyone. Police have not been able to determine who fired those shots either.
In addition to the 14-year-old, there were six other people shot on New Year’s Eve within the city limits. Police found a 17-year-old male shot earlier in the night. Paramedics responded to the scene and pronounced the teen dead.
Police believe that the victim of the shooting was targeted by the shooter but have not released any other information on the motive since it is an ongoing open case.
Maryland has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Even with these regulations that Democrats claim make the city safer, Baltimore has a murder rate many times higher than the national average.
Last year the city saw 308 murders. Medical examiners ruled that a man killed in 2007 was a murder so that case brings the official number of murders to 309. In 2017 Baltimore was ranked seventh in murders per capita.
On New Year’s Day Baltimore saw its first murder of the year. An unknown suspect shot a 28-year-old man. First responders transported the man to a local shock trauma facility where he later died.
Gun rights activist point to the data as a failure of gun control in Maryland. They claim that the statistics show that gun control in the state has had little to no effect on gun violence.
Police transported Watts to Central Booking where they charged him with various gun crimes. Authorities are currently holding him city jail. The exact charges are unknown.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.