The state of Maryland isn’t a fan of the right to keep and bear arms. They’ve done everything they could to restrict that right and when Bruen came out, they tried to use it as a checklist of what they could get away with. Unfortunately for them, their reading comprehension doesn’t seem to be that good.
But folks there believe gun control is some kind of answer, and I get why they’re looking for one. Baltimore isn’t exactly in the running for safest city in America.
Despite all the laws on the books in Maryland, though, bad guys keep getting guns.
A 19-year-old Greenbelt man has been sentenced to federal prison followed by supervised release for federal charges stemming from his involvement in drug trafficking and illegally owning a machine gun.
According to Donald Fortune, Jr.’s guilty plea, law enforcement began investigating him in April 2022 for suspected firearms and drug trafficking involvement. Prince George’s Police Detectives detectives monitored public posts from Fortune’s social media account where he listed firearms and advertised drugs for sale. Based on their investigation, including the social media posts, a search warrant was obtained for Fortune’s apartment.
According to court documents, a short time later, Fortune, still wearing the Gucci satchel, left the apartment building with a woman. They both got into a rideshare and drove off. PGPD police conducted a traffic stop of the ride-share vehicle a short time later and saw Fortune reach down toward his feet. Officers asked Fortune, who was still wearing the Gucci satchel, to step out of the vehicle and officers saw a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol on the floorboard where Fortune had been sitting.
The gun, which had its serial number removed, was loaded with one round in the chamber and 21 rounds in an extended magazine, and was equipped with a full auto selector switch on the rear of the handgun slide, making it a machine gun under federal law. A search of the Gucci satchel revealed a large bag containing 282 30 milligram blue pills, later found to be counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl. Officers also recovered $790 in cash from Fortune, according to court documents.
This same guy apparently posted videos on social media showing numerous weapons he was too young to buy lawfully, including at least one with the full-auto switch. It’s unclear if this was the same weapon police recovered when they arrested him or not.
However, as a 19-year-old, even if it hadn’t had the full-auto switch, he couldn’t have legally purchased it anywhere, much less in Maryland.
Yet since he couldn’t lawfully buy the fentanyl, either, that shouldn’t be a shock.
I’ve said a number of times that those who wish to break the law will break still more laws, by and large. I’m not talking about stuff like speeding, either. I mean the big stuff.
While some won’t be violent no matter how criminal they are, those involved in the drug trade generally aren’t in that camp. If they are, they have someone willing to get violent for them.
Which means guns are going to be part of the equation and if all the drug control laws in the nation haven’t stopped bad guys from getting drugs to sell, why in the world would anyone think Maryland’s gun control will stop them?
