Maryland will open a new statewide center focused on gun violence prevention, The Hill reports. The announcement Tuesday by Gov. Wes Moore follows Vice President Harris’s call for state officials to confront the issue on a state-level. “We have got to confront this inexcusable fact that 75 percent of all homicides in Maryland are committed with a gun. This is a public safety crisis, but it’s also a public health crisis,” Moore said. “We need to get these illegal guns off of our streets, and we will.”
In September, the Biden administration created the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Last month, Harris called on state leaders to mimic this office on a statewide level. Maryland is the first state to take action in response to the recommendation, according to Rob Wilcox, the deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.